


The Enemy of My Enemy

by Seliphra



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And doesn't know what a gender binary is, Angst, Because Keith isn't a man, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Porn, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galra have six genders, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Lance is Lance and Lance is a jerk, M/M, Mpreg, Other, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, Until he learns a thing, but he does use he/him pronouns, eventually, for a while, klance, mpreg but not really, slavery mentions, so just in case
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2018-09-14 16:43:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9193931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seliphra/pseuds/Seliphra
Summary: When Lance wakes up after ten thousand years with only his Princess and her assistant having survived the destruction of their entire civilization, he's at a loss. Even his long time dream of being one of the Paladin's of Voltron, a high honour, doesn't bring him much comfort. And to make matters worse, the Red Paladin turns out to be an enemy, one of the very kind who destroyed his home, and his family. In order to form Voltron though, Lance will have to learn to accept and trust Keith as a member of their team. To make matters even worse though? Keith is also pretty damned cute.





	1. It's Always Been My Dream

**Author's Note:**

> So this first chapter sort-of follows the canon pretty closely, including a lot of similar dialogue, and scenes, with minor alterations or deletions. It will diverge though after this pretty heavily, so please bear with this slower start, I promise it gets better!

Lance had always dreamed of being a Voltron paladin. When he was little, he would picture himself as the Black Paladin, a true leader, like it's real paladin. When he was a little older, in his fifties and nearly finished his education he thought maybe being the Red Paladin would be more suited to him. Temperamental and the choosiest of the lions, but even when a spot opened up and even on his one hundredth birthday, it was not to be. Red chose a Khalan that day, accepting it's new paladin, much to Lance's dismay.

No, being a Paladin of Voltron was not in the stars for Lance, it seemed, though he wished it more than anything. Instead he came to work for his people's King, King Alfor. He was one of the greatest kings Altea had ever known, and Lance consoled himself with knowing that Alfor wasn't a Paladin of Voltron either. When Lance had turned one-hundred and twenty, the Black Lion chose a new paladin again, a Galra warrior named Zarkon. Lance was jealous again of that, but he got o work in the Castle of Lions anyways. He didn't get to speak to the Paladins much, they were busy keeping the universe safe from harm. But Lance did get to see the lions a lot.

Lance would visit them all, from time to time, an engineer who worked on them. The Blue Lion always needed the most repair, as Blue Paladin's tended to be a bit reckless. The Red Lion needed the second most amount, their natural skill keeping them safe most of the time, but their hot tempers and impulsiveness causing more problems for them ultimately. Lance longed to be a pilot, but then the war came. The Black Paladin turned on them all, Zarkon leading the Galran army against the Castle of Lions. King Alfor sent the lions away, all save the Black lion, and set a course for a planet far away, safe from Zarkon's reach.

Arus had no sentient life on it, but before they reached it there was an attack by Zarkon. They had to jump, rest, jump, rest, and the fleet caught up with them. Alfor's daughter was already sealed away, the beautiful princess in stasis, safe as could be, and Alfor tried to send the rest of the crew off too. The escape pods were shot at, most being captured or destroyed before they could get away, and Lance grabbed the arm of one of the other men. Coran, he was an advisor to the King, and Lance pulled him to the pods instead.

“We're dead if we go out there, but we might be okay in here right? And the King can let us out if we're okay, and then there's still someone on board who can help, right?” Lance explained.

“That's good thinking there. Let's hope the ship survives it's journey, and if we're still alive on the other side, remind me to get your name!” Coran said as they both entered a pod on their own. The ship did survive the journey, setting down on it's own, empty of life, except for the contents of three pods on the pod-deck.

And so there they slept, for ten thousand years. Alone, quiet, and forgotten by time and the Galra, as the world they had landed on marched on, forming new life, and across the galaxy three people found a yellow lion in a cave on a planet called Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heavy. Lance felt heavy as he came back to awareness again, and he could hear voices...

“Are these guys... dead?” It was a deeper voice, scared sounding, right before the woosh of his pod opening and Lance blinked his eyes open. Three bipedal creatures stood there in the room. One was crouching behind the control panel, a very short one was standing at the control panel, and a tall one, dressed all in black to the left of the tiny one. The next pod to open contained the princess and as she woke she tried to step forward.

“Father...” She gasped as she reached out and Lance did try to catch her, but he still felt heavy, and like his limbs weren't working quite right. Both of them hit the floor, the princess landing on top of him, which caused Lance to turn bright red.

“P-Princess! Are you alright?” Lance managed to squeak out as she blinked and sat back, confused. She frowned at the sight of the three strange bipeds who were all staring at them too.

“I'm fine... who are you three? Where is King Alfor? And what are you doing in my castle?” She asked, standing back up again. The three bipeds jumped and looked between each other before the dark-skinned, frightened looking one spoke. Lance recognized his voice as the one that had spoken right as his pod had opened.

“A giant yellow lion brought us here! That's all we know!” He whimpered, looking afraid of her. He should be, Princess Allura was much stronger than Lance was, all female Altean's were stronger than the men.

“How do you have the Yellow Lion? What happened to it's Paladin? What are you all doing here? Unless... how long has it been?” Allura asked, her expression concerned. Lance swallowed lightly at the though. Could it really have been long enough for the Yellow Lion to need a new Paladin? What about the other Lions then?

“We... don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you tell us who you are, maybe we can help?” The tall one spoke. He had an obvious scar across his nose, but no gender markers on his cheek bones. They're ears were hideous too, Lance noticed now. He seemed genuine though, paternal in some ways.

“I am Princess Allura, of planet Altea. I've got to find out where we are, and how long we've been asleep,” Allura said, walking towards the control panel. It lit up when she touched it and Lance turned his attention to the last pod, one ear twitching lightly when he heard the little one say something. He didn't pay much attention to it as he tapped a few buttons to wake Coran up too. The pod wooshed open and Coran took one look around before gasping.

“ENEMY COMBATANTS!” He shouted as he leaped out of his sleep pod, surprisingly spry considering how heavy Lance had felt. How heavy Lance still felt. Despite that, Lance stepped easily to one side and Coran landed, stumbling into the sleep pod. “Quiznak... you're lucky I have a case of the old sleep-chamber knee's or I'd grab you like this, wrap you up like so and one, two, three, sleepy time!”

“Coran. It's me. I got into the sleep pod next to you. I'm Altean,” Lance said, looking thoroughly underwhelmed. “And anyways, if I was an enemy combatant, I would whoh! Hyah! Hwuah! Like that!” Lance jumped and punched the air to show him. Not to be out done though, Coran glared and got into a crouch.

“Oh really? Well how could you do that when I've already come at you with this?! Hya, hya, hya, hyey!!” He jabbed at the air, while the scared looking alien watched them especially closely.

“Wow... these guys are good!” He mumbled, though he jumped nearly a foot when Allura spoke, suddenly, despite her soft tone which was both dismayed and upset.

“It can't be... we've been asleep for ten thousand years. Planet Altea, and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Father is gone... our entire civilization,” Her face fell slowly as she spoke and Lance felt like he'd been punched in the gut when she said it. Coran looked how Lance felt too, as though all the air had been sucked right out of him, and despair filled the void it left inside.

“Zarkon,” Allura said next, her eye's narrowing, her tone filled with anger and hate. Lance felt the same, scowling at the name and feeling an intense burning inside. Everything was gone. Everything was just... gone. His parents, his siblings, his niece and nephew, not even in their twenties yet and still so tiny! All gone. No. Not gone. Murdered.

“Zarkon... yes. I remember now, I was his prisoner,” The taller alien spoke now, a fearful expression on his face. Lance, Allura, and Coran all looked at him in concern. Lance wanted answers from these aliens, but he knew they had to be gentle. If one of them was a prisoner of the Galra Empire, of Zarkon... then they were likely as innocent as the Altean's had been too.

“He's still alive? But that's impossible!” Allura said, scowling softly. Lance thought so too... Altean's had extraordinarily long life spans, and Galra did have pretty decent ones too, but Lance knew the oldest most Galra lived to be was in their three hundreds, at least for Zarkon's gender. Some lived much longer, but they were mostly druids if he remembered right. He'd known much less about the Galra than he'd realized. Four genders... or was it six? And only one gender could give birth. Was that right?

“I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a super-weapon called Voltron. I heard them talking about it during my time there,” The tall one said, “my name is Takashi Shirogane, by the way. The short one is Pidge Gunderson, and the scared one is Hunk Garret.”

“He's searching for it, because he knows it is the only thing that can defeat him. Which is exactly why we must find it before he does. I don't know you very well... even you, I'm afraid, although you are one of the last Altean's too,” She looked to Lance now, her eyes sad. Did she pity him? Lance didn't like that, it felt uncomfortable.

“Lance. I was one of the mechanic's for the Lion's,” He said, though now... now they had to find out where they had gone.

“Of course. Lance. It is good to have you here too. Come on, all of you. We're going to find the rest of the lions now, and get them back,” She wasn't sure they had enough to form Voltron though. Four... these four seemed to fit what they needed, but no one seemed to fit what they needed for the Red Lion. It was a bit of a walk to the control room, a place Lance had only been a few times before despite living and working here for so long.

“King Alfor connected the lions to Allura's life force. She alone can find the other four lions,” Coran said.

“Five lions. So how many of us are going to be pilots?” Shiro asked, looking between them. Allura frowned as she lit up the control panels, the whole galaxy seeming to appear inside the control room with them. The three aliens gasped in amazement as they looked around.

“The Black Lion appears to be in the same location as the Yellow Lion...” The small one named Pidge said, looking at the map. So they had kept the Black Lion on board after all? Lance supposed it made sense. The attack had happened before the Black Lion could be hidden, and with no pilot to take it to the corners of the universe...

“Yes. The Black Lion is here. It is the decisive head of Voltron, and it will take a pilot who is a born leader, and in control at all times. Someone who's men will follow without hesitation. That is why Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.” Allura declared. The alien named Shiro looked pretty serious at that, and Lance had no doubt that Allura was wrong about him. He looked like a leader, and so far the aliens all seemed to deffer to him when he said anything. She spoke of the green lion next, and Lance started tuning her out. She and Coran would likely be the pilots of the other lions too...

“Lance? Lance! Did you hear me? Are you alright?” Allura and the aliens were staring at him suddenly, though mostly with concerned expressions on their faces. His mind had wandered to his family again. He couldn't stop thinking about how gone they were... how he would never even know what happened to them, how they died.

“I... uh... sorry...” He blinked and looked at the small blue lion image in front of him. Wait... him?

“As I said. Lance, you will pilot the Blue Lion. As for the Red Lion, I fear... we may not be able to find a pilot for it. None of us are suited for it, but it's possible we simply haven't met the Red Paladin yet. It is just as well, as I can't seem to locate the Red Lion either. There might be something wrong with the castle though. After ten thousand years, it wouldn't surprise me...” Allura said with a small smile.

“Alright. Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion then. Lance, Hunk, you two find the Blue Lion. If you manage to locate the Red Lion while we're gone then we'll have to try and get it here, at least, unless we happen to find a paladin for it along the way...” They divided up then, Lance tuning out the new Yellow Paladin as they headed to the doors of the castle again. Everything felt like a dream right now. He was going to pilot one of the lion's of Voltron... and yet... he wanted more than anything to wake up and have this all be a horrific nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter we're following Lance, and next chapter we will follow Keith, and learn about all six of the Galra genders at once! Also special thanks to EreAsha for help with brainstorming and ideas, I owe you big time!!


	2. The Escape of the Red Paladin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith was born to the Galra empire, but his rebellious nature rejected his fate. Fleeing from ship to ship will only get you so far though, it's time to escape and fight back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter deals with themes of slavery and sexual slavery, though not explicitly. It is pretty well implied, however, and this may be triggering or upsetting to some readers. Reader discretion is advised. Otherwise: This chapter is about 1000 words longer than I meant it to be, and we're still... mostly following some parts of canon, but we're completely leaving canon behind in the next chapter (or... mostly). Following Keith this chapter, and it is a bit slow as I'm explaining the six genders that I'm giving to the Galra. I know some people explain the differences in their species as sub-types/sub-species. I am choosing genders instead because I like the idea of a species with several genders.

Keith had never been very good at obeying what was set out for him. Keith had never followed the path that was laid out for him, and he had no real regrets around that, beyond not knowing if they had punished the only person in the universe he loved for it. Keith walked through the ship, double checking the locks on the prison cells to make sure no one could get out -not that they had anywhere to go- and that no one could try to fight the guards -not that any of them would. 

Nothing interesting happened on his ship. Ever. But then again, he liked it that way, since it kept the others on board from discovering his secret. Keith wasn't meant to be a soldier. No one born a qylar was ever meant to be one, so they told him. So of course, when one of the war ships full of horny soldiers had docked with the nursery ship that was his one time home, he knocked out the air lock guard, stole his uniform, and slipped on board in his place. 

Keith had changed ships several times since then, and no one seemed to notice -or if they did they didn't care enough to report him to any officers- that he was not the soldier his name plate said he was. Keith was the most useless gender one could be, while being a Galra. The qylar were shorter, thinner, and had wider set hips, tails, and were the only one of the six Galra genders that could give birth. This was their absolute duty to the empire, the gol on board his ships had told him, and every other young qylar born the same year he was. To give birth every two and a half years, to provide the empire with soldiers to send off to serve the empire in better ways. 

Gol, despite their total infertility, were the only gender in the Galra who could use magic which made them very important and useful to the empire. They were hunched, with stark white, long fur on their heads, more similar to what others might call hair. Their skin was purplish blue and furless ans their eye's were yellow, and red stripes adorned their wrists, ankles, hips, neck, shoulders, and cheeks. They usually all became druids, though the weaker ones were sent to the nursery ships to keep the qylar in line. Not that this took much effort. 

Keith was taller than most qylar though, which helped him blend in on the ship. His armour hid his distinctive figure and his tail, his eyes were as yellow as any Galra, other than gal, and his heat cycle he repressed by dieting, which though irritating, was certainly better than being found out and sent back to what fate awaited him on board the nursery ship. He avoided the healing, soothing purr by simply never being happy -not a difficult task actually, if one asked him, and no one did. 

The gal were the only of the six genders not to have yellow eyes. Their skin was scalier too, certainly compared to the light fur that covered Keith's body. In fact by contrast, the gal had no hair at all on their bodies. Purple eyes... and they were generally taller and bulkier, and physically stronger than the other genders. They were considered one of the better genders to be born, since that was what their emperor Zarkon was. This apparently offered few advantages though in the army itself, as they were more often than not brute force. 

The qvir were the most similar to qylar, and it was a qvir Keith pretended to be. Like qylar, they had fur, larger ears, that pivoted and a darker purple tuft of fur that grew longer on their heads, though most shaved it off. Keith kept his, despite it's especially fluffy nature. He wore a helmet nearly constantly anyways, and saw little point in cutting it. Qvir were normally taller than qylar though, stronger, and Keith was told more intelligent, but he'd begun to doubt that in his four years flitting about the empire as a foot soldier. 

The raego were the most intelligent gender though, intuitive, and quick to come up with idea's and plans. They too were covered in fur, but their ears were small, and didn't move on their heads like qvir or qylar ears did. Raego tended to move up the ranks more easily, thanks to their brilliant minds. His mother had warned him that they were especially cruel though, when they visited the nursery ships. They were also especially cruel to prisoners, dissenters, rule breakers, and generally anyone who breathed too loudly in their presence while they also held a rank, Keith had learned. They often had serious under bites, which most other soldiers would mimic to taunt them. Keith never did... he was forced to keep his head down, an almost impossible task for him, considering his temper. 

The Ruj were the final gender, and harder for Keith to pinpoint. They were scaly, and unlike most Galra, they had irises and pupils. They had fin-like ears and scales that were dark purple on their heads, always in a line toward their spines, and a few dotted about elsewhere on their bodies. Their crews tended to have higher moral, it was true, but it was harder for them to rise through ranks it seemed to Keith. And apparently they did not generally visit nursery ships either, though the odd one who did, his mother had told him, had always been surprisingly gentle. His mother had told him that his father was a ruj, which at least made him feel a little better about it.

Keith sat down, deciding he could afford to slack off a little bit, at least right now. He had only just leaned against a wall to ignore what he was supposed to be doing when the intercom crackled to life and a familiar voice echoed through the ship. 

“All hands, prepare for a worm-hole jump. Repeat: All hands, prepare for a worm-hold jump. Assault strikers ready, all hands, prepare for a worm-hole jump.” Keith scowled as he found the right spot on the wall and hit the button for a row of chairs to pop out. He sat down as several others jogged over, strapping in beside him. It was another minute before the familiar vibrations and rocking came to tell him they were in a worm hole. It was always uncomfortable, jumping. He always felt a touch queasy when they came out the other side. 

Keith unstrapped once they had jumped and went back to his post for now. Better than having to fight anything. Keith didn't like fighting anything... seeing what the empire did to all these species, all these people... it left a sour taste in his mouth. Part of him wondered if perhaps the way qylar were treated was just as wrong as the way aliens were. It must be. None of them were free after all. All of them were forced to comply or die, though Keith... Keith, full of fire, and told many times that it should be smothered out... Keith had decided he would rather die. 

For the longest time nothing seemed to be happening at all until he heard a crash and a bang, and a siren alert went off inside the ship, signalling that the fighters were scrambling and launching. Were they in a battle? Keith frowned, but a noise caused one of his ears to pivot and he turned. Footsteps... coming this way. Soft voices, not Galran. Another sound from another direction and he gritted his teeth. Stay and fight or follow the sound, the humming bell-chime that rang in his head from the strange robot lion in their cargo bay... 

Damn it all. He wasn't going to fight some stupid aliens. The droid soldiers could handle that, so he followed the chime, the energy that always pulled him in. Keith spent all of his spare time inside the hangar bay, watching the red barrier, and the lion it contained. He wondered what it was, why he felt connected to it. He never sat out in the open of course, that might raise questions, which might get him dragged before Sendak, who might recognize him, or at least suspect... Before Keith was quite aware of it, he stood in front of the lion again and glared at it this time. No one was around them... 

“You gonna tell me what you want or what?” Keith snapped at it now. Stupid thing. It called him here again and again, and now, in the middle of a fight! And all it ever did was stare at him silently, the red shield up and it's silent judgment weighing upon him. He stared at for what felt like an hour, but he knew it wasn't, when a sound caught his ear and he turned to see a group of armed drones running past. Toward the jails? The alert for a jail break went too and he scowled before he tapped the button on his helmet as the drones ran towards the hallway and ran for the control panel. In his time as the guard, the one who patched up prisoners after a fight, kept them alive, fed them... he'd grown attached to them. Grown to feel guilty over what the empire was and did... not that he was able to do much. The empire enslaved it's own as much as it enslaved others. 

“You aren't getting those prisoners!” He growled, hitting the airlock button. Another alarm blared and Keith was grateful his helmet flattened his ears so much, it muffled all the noise. Keith grabbed to panel as the airlock opened and the vacuum of space pulled at him. The droids were out, so he reached for the panel again to close it but flying debris hit him. He tried again but... shit... 

“Shit!” He lost his grip too and out he went, into space. No, no, no! These suits didn't have jetpacks. They were designed to keep him alive if they lost containment, if the oxygen was gone... but not to get him back in a ship if he was actually sucked out into space. Okay, okay, deep breaths... he looked around, scared before the sound of the lion caught his attention, the sound he'd heard for months each time it called him. When he looked again it was right in front of him... and then he was inside it. 

“Good... good kitty,” He said, grinning a little as he reached for the controls. He'd never piloted anything, but it felt easy too. Natural. He could see other lions that looked like this one, but... different. An escape pod was going to the planet they were orbiting and Keith moved to guard it down, the other lions apparently following him down. 

“Everyone to the castle, where the Black Lion is!” Keith heard over a communication radio in the lion. He followed them, grinning, a little terrified and giddy at once. He'd broken the rules by escaping the nursery ship... he was breaking a lot more by helping these people... but maybe he could make a difference. Maybe he could make things better. 

He settled his lion in beside the blue and the green lions, noting that his own lion was only bigger than the green one. A small figure dressed in a black and white space suit ran out of the green lion and stood before the door just then. Keith couldn't see him too well but... he felt familiar. There was no way Keith could know him though right? He was an alien after all and Keith only saw the prisoners. The Black Lion roared, and Keith jumped when all four of the others, his own included, roared with it before the alien in black ran forward and into the new lion. Five lions... why five anyways? Couldn't they build more or something? 

“Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere! We need Voltron, _now_!” A new voice called over the radio and Keith swallowed lightly. What... what the hell was a 'Voltron'? The voice that spoke was pretty and light, and yet held fierceness to it too, in a way Keith wasn't used to hearing. It felt like a kind voice. At least he knew who Sendak was and how cruel he could be... 

“Yeah!” The others echoed and and moved up and out of the bay after the blank lion. Keith moved too, worried about this. He had no idea what he was doing, and he had no idea what a Voltron was, but apparently they had to form one. Somehow. With five lions. Under heavy fire from the Galra, which he also was, not that any of these guys knew it... They all landed, under a particle barrier that several flyers were shooting at when Keith saw the purple gleam of the ion canon. He really hoped he hadn't just left the empire only to die in this fight against one Galra ship... then again, if they were captured alive he would suffer a fate far worse than death. 

“Man, those Galra guys repair things fast!” A new, deeper voice came over the intercom. Keith nearly replied that they had things like that down to an art-form but he refrained, fearing it might give him away. He supposed if they survived this it would happen anyways, but hopefully if he helped them here first they would trust him a bit better? Then again he was even wearing the Galra uniform... 

“The barrier gets weaker with every blast. Once that shield goes down, the castle will be defenceless!” Another deeper voice said. It had a thick sounding accent, not light like the first voice had been. Keith bit his lower lip, his eyes narrowing at the ship in concern. 

“I can give you cover with the castle defences for a while, but you have to form Voltron now! Or we'll all be destroyed!” The first voice again, Keith recognized. He swallowed again, refraining from asking what a Voltron was still. It might not be good for moral if the others knew that he had no idea what he was doing or what was even really happening. All he really understood was that if he fought the Galra with them, he would be free from them too. Forever. 

“Geez. No pressure...” That was the one who talked about fast repairs... right? Probably. Keith tugged off his helmet to hear better just as the second ion canon blast hit the shields. He winced and watched the shield as it flickered, barely surviving this blast and swallowed. 

“Listen up team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?!” Keith's eyes widened at that voice, his right ear popping straight up and swivelling to point at the intercom as Champion spoke. That was _definitely_ Champion's voice! No... Shiro. Shiro. He had hated the name 'Champion' when Keith had called him that. He felt more confident with a fighter like that on his team. There was a unified cry of confirmation and they all started forward out of the barrier. 

“Uh... how?” Came another new voice. Even in the heat of battle Keith couldn't help but find he really liked that voice a lot, which was a touch embarrassing. He really should use more than just a voice to form a crush, right? Right. Either way, it was a relief to know the others didn't know how to form a Voltron either. 

“I don't see a 'combine into giant robot button' _anywhere_ on my dashboard!” It was the repair guy again and Keith blinked in surprise. A giant robot was what they were forming? They already had five giant robots, why combine them into one? Wasn't five lions better than one of the Voltron's? Although forming a giant robot did make the most sense for what a Voltron could be, and Keith admittedly felt a little silly for not thinking of that probability sooner... 

“This is insane! Can't they just cease fire for _one_ minute while they figure this out? Is that too much to ask?!” That voice sounded young, like one just entering adolescence. The green lion broke formation now and grabbed one fighter in it's jaw, thrashing it about. Keith was about to respond when the yellow lion slammed into his suddenly, causing him to struggle to recover. 

“Hey!” He growled over the comm, his first time actually speaking to them. Well, other than Shiro, but he wasn't sure Shiro would even remember him. A lot of the time Shiro had been beaten up... one time missing an arm. 

“Well that didn't work. Hey, so you _can_ talk!” So the repair guy was in the yellow lion, Keith knew that now for sure. The black lion held Shiro. The adolescent was in the green one... so the pretty voice was probably the blue lion right? He supposed the other two must be in the castle then. 

“Maybe if we just... fly in formation, we'll combine? Ready? One! Two! Three! Voltron!” They did all take off, but if anything, Shiro just sapped his confidence. If Shiro had no idea what they were doing, they were probably doubly screwed right now, right? Nothing was happening until Keith noticed purple light around them and sighed, his hands letting go of the controls. Not even destroyed, they would be tractored in... and once they inspected him... qylar were too valuable to execute, and anyways, he belonged to someone specific. 

“Nothing is happening! Wait... I feel something?!” The blue paladin, who likely hadn't clued in yet. 

“I feel it too! Like... we're all being pulled together in the same direction!” The yellow one this time. 

“Uhh... guys... I think I know why.... look up!” Shiro's voice, concerned, but not dismayed yet. Keith should have known. He should have known better than to try and fight the Galra empire. He registered the voice of the green paladin, but didn't process what was said either. He registered another blast from the ion canon and some shouts from the others, but he said nothing in return. Not until Shiro spoke again. The universes only hope. Can't fail. Work together, win together. Keith grabbed his controls then, and somehow he felt the others doing the same as they broke out of the tractor beam. 

He honestly didn't do much where controlling the change was concerned, but quite suddenly his display changed and he moved, punching his lion? The arm? It was both! Into the ion canon just as it prepared another shot. It wouldn't get another one off. So _this_ was a Voltron! Keith grinned, his despair of a moment ago suddenly giddiness. 

“I-I can't believe it!” He grinned in amazement, and his ear swivelled to listen to the other paladin's equally delighted comments of confusion and happiness. The yellow paladin also said something about being a leg. It was a team effort, pulling the cannon off, but it was mostly just him firing off an ion cannon of his own inside the ship. There were no prisoners left on the ship... just soldiers, and they were mostly terrible, he already knew. And yet... there was guilt too as fire blossomed out of the ship and it blew up. He ignored that for now, working with them to bring the ship down. When it crashed towards the ground he could feel a pull from his lion as they all disconnected and landed again, before the castle. 

The other paladins walked out of their lions, jumping and congratulating each other... another two people left the castle, but Keith... Keith stayed where he was, grabbing his helmet and pulling it back on. He didn't know what to do... he had to reveal himself eventually but what would they do to him? What would they say? Not only was he Galra, he was qylar. The most useless gender or all of them... he wasn't strong, or smart, or fast, or ruthless... the qylar were the nurturers, he had been told. The mothers of their whole species. Important yes... but only when it came to giving birth and caring for newborns. 

“Hey man, come on out...” The blue paladin called, looking at he red lion now. He really was pretty, Keith thought, but the others were looking now too. Three of them had pointed ears and markings under their eyes. There was Shiro... and the other two looked like they might be from his species too. He stood up and the red lion bowed, and Keith walked out to meet his fate. His step only faltered when he saw their expressions, shock, fear... and hate.


	3. The Galra Can't Be Trusted!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is absolutely no way Lance will accept a Galra as a paladin of Voltron, not after what happened last time. But he might not have a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few people noticed this story is going to have some really complex themes, nice! There were a few concerns and questions, but don't worry, everything should clear up pretty soon too as they question Keith and get to know him over the next few chapters.

When the red lion had first launched out of the Galra ship, Lance had assumed one of the prisoners that Shiro and Pidge had freed was the pilot. He had assumed they were like him, hurting, angry, afraid... and ready to destroy the empire that had taken everything they could from everyone they could. Lance had thought that perhaps they might be friends, might bond over that shared frustration. Lance had thought this right up until the Red Lion had bowed it's head and it's pilot stepped out of the cockpit, dressed in the purple, red, and black armour of the Galra soldiers, a red helmet on his head. The Galra warrior stopped a few feet from them, his expression unreadable. 

_Oh, HELL no._ Lance thought, feeling himself glaring at this person. There was no way that one of those responsible for all of this, for all the suffering in the universe would ever be his teammate. Lance would never accept this yellow-eyed freak as a paladin, and he was in disbelief that Red would choose one _especially_ after the mistake that Black had made ten thousand years ago. Allura and Coran wore similar expressions as his at least, of anger and hate. The humans looked confused more than anything, and the Galra in front of them didn't budge. Or drop dead on the spot, Lance would be okay if he did that too. 

“Um... so... this is not... what we expected...” Shiro said slowly, trying to ease the tension they could all feel in the air now. He looked confused, and concerned, but he didn't know who the Black Paladin before him was either. Shiro didn't understand fully that the Galra could never be trusted. The Galra in question pulled his helmet off, revealing larger, more mobile ears, and a lot of fluffy purple on his head. 

“I surrender,” the Galra said suddenly, dropping the helmet and raising his hands up and watching them. Lance couldn't discern his expression, but he was suspicious of that. Even before the war, Galra warriors prided themselves on never surrendering, never backing down. It had to be a trick of some kind, a trap. Allura and Coran looked like they thought that might be the case too. The humans seemed to relax at that though, accepting it as a genuine surrender.

“Do you have any weapons? You should put them down in front of you if you do...” Shiro said, his tone gentle, but stern. At least the humans weren't _totally_ trusting. It was still a Galra after all, still the enemy. The Galra reached down and pulled a singe knife from his right boot, placing it on the ground before himself, then kicking it away and towards the paladins. He stood up again and raised his hands once more before glancing back at Red. 

“Uh... does... the lion count, 'cause I'm not sure I can lay that down in front of me, it's a little big...” He tried a small grin, all fangs, which seemed to unsettle everyone else as much as it did Lance, who glared harder at the Galra. The Galra dropped the smile quickly, flinching just slightly, hands still up as Shiro picked up the knife carefully. 

“When I knew the Galra, they had a policy of not surrendering. What is it that you want? Who are you? How do you have the Red Lion?” Allura asked, her voice and expression hard, unyielding. Her voice betrayed her anger too, but if the Galra noticed, it didn't seem too concerned. Either he didn't care, or he was used to being yelled at, and either was possible considering. His bright yellow eyes seemed to stay fixated on Lance, something that irked him even more somehow. The Galra's larger ears both stood tall, pointing towards them to hear them all better, though the left one occasionally swivelled to listen behind himself.

“My name's Keith, I did surrender, I am still... surrendering, so I mean, maybe your info is a little outdated. I got sucked into space and the lion picked me up, it's been calling to me since it came on board the ship a few months ago, but until today it didn't do anything. During the fight it called to me again, so I left my post... and... I want to fight Zarkon. I know you don't have any reason to trust me, but I'm now a traitor to the Empire. I want to help you.” He said. Lance snorted lightly. No reason to trust him was right, and Lance didn't. There was _nothing_ that would get him to trust a Galra now. 

“Galra _don't_ surrender. Princess, we're not actually going to entertain this are we? They're a _Galra warrior_ and only death or success stop those. They're all loyal to Zarkon anyways, they're probably a spy!” Lance insisted. He would rather shoot this 'Keith' and be done with him now. Allura looked like she wanted to do the same thing too. Maybe he should list that as an option that was open to them. Killing Keith now would save them a lot of grief in the future after all. 

“I don't trust them either. But they are the one chosen by the Red Lion, so we can't just send them back or kill them either. We're going to have to confine you until we can determine whether or not you're telling us the truth. If you are, then... we'll discuss you working with us. If not...” She frowned at Keith, a stern look in her eyes. Keith didn't look too pleased with the idea but he nodded once. Lance pulled out his bayard, the gun appearing again. 

“Come on, I'll escort you...” Lance said. Maybe he'd hit this guy once or twice too? Not like Allura would be too upset with him probably if he did bump his bayard on Keith's head once or twice. Or Coran by the look on his face, it seemed he hated Keith as much as Lance did, and trusted him about the same too. Lance was a bit dismayed when Shiro spoke again though, an annoying voice of reason when all Lance wanted to do was be as unreasonable as possible. 

“I'll come too. Just in case he causes any trouble...” Shiro said. He looked at Lance though when he spoke, and Lance suspected from Shiro's expression that Shiro thought _Lance_ might be more trouble than Keith was. Keith did go quietly though, not fighting them while they lead him through the ship in a tense silence, put him inside an empty room, and sealed the doors for now. Lance breathed a sigh of relief once the Galra was locked up, feeling safer with it confined. 

“You all think he's lying huh?” Shiro asked as they walked away from the room that they were temporarily using as a prison cell. He sounded disappointed, like he didn't like the assumptions the Altean's were all making about Keith, and it made something hot burn inside Lance's stomach, twisting itself in knots inside of him. 

“Of course he's lying! He's a Galra!” Lance snapped, feeling his hand tighten around his bayard, still in his hand, though no longer holding it's shape for him. Shiro was their captive for a year, he knew how bad they were! Or had he really forgotten everything about his time there? Everything they had done to him? Or maybe humans were all like this, too trusting, too quick to forgive those who wronged them. Altean's held grudges for centuries after all... 

“Yeah... he is. Something seemed... familiar about him though,” Shiro frowned and shook his head, looking confused. “Might be nothing...” Lance hoped it was nothing. They returned to the main hall together, mostly in silence now, where the other paladins, Coran, and princess Allura waited for them. The lions were all still parked outside, their particle barrier's going up as soon as they were left alone. 

“So... how do we question this... Keith guy?” Pidge asked now, frowning in thought. Lance wondered that too... after all Galra were pretty good liars when they wanted to be. If Keith was a spy he would have a background all cooked up for them, and reasons that sounded believable for wanting to flee the Empire himself. Lance had already decided privately not to trust a single thing Keith ever said to him. Lance sat down, glaring silently at the floor for now. His head hurt, he was tired. Lance wanted to lay down and sleep, and try to process everything that had happened to him today. 

“We'll have to find some way to make sure he isn't lying to us. If we don't know, then we can't trust what he says either way, and if he's going to be piloting a lion, we need to be able to trust him,” Shiro was right there. They couldn't form Voltron if they didn't trust each other after all. Lance didn't really care about forming Voltron right now though. He just didn't want _Keith_ on the team, or in the castle, or anywhere near him. 

“The lion chose wrong.” Lance said stubbornly. Keith couldn't be the Paladin. Maybe it was just trying to escape, and used him to do it? Maybe Keith or some other Galra hacked into it some how and tricked it? Chose Keith for the fake paladin because he was small and cute and fluffy? Lance mentally kicked himself for thinking a _Galra_ , of _all_ things, could be _cute_. 

“ _Can_ the lions choose wrong? Is that like, is that like a thing that can happen?” Hunk asked, looking a bit surprised and concerned by the idea. After all, it might mean his had chosen wrong too, and Lance knew the thought of being chosen incorrectly was not a happy one for any Paladin. 

“It... it _has_ happened before, a few times in Voltron's history. All of the lions have chosen incorrectly on at least one occasion, but only once was that mistake truly devastating in it's consequences. It's possible they tampered with the Red Lion too. We don't know how long they had Red for, after all. It's quite possible that it's been hijacked somehow, and wouldn't have chosen Keith under normal circumstances,” Allura said what Lance had been thinking. 

“Hey, do the Galra have physiological responses when lying like humans do? Maybe we could build a polygraph test? It's not always accurate, but I think I could make it possible to pick up lies too, once we get a baseline on his readings, and if he tells at least one lie that we know of...” Pidge said and all of them stared for a second at the Green paladin. 

“I uhh... I guess that could work, right?” Shiro shrugged, apparently not entirely sure of what Pidge just said. Lance wasn't either, but if they had a machine to detect lies, that was very useful to them, and not just for finding out Keith's true intentions. 

“You can have whatever you need to build this machine of yours, Pidge. Let Coran know what you need and I'm sure we can find something that will work, at the very least. Lance, you can help too... though... for the rest of today, perhaps we should rest. It has been a long and... difficult day. For all of us, I'm sure,” Allura's voice was strained towards the end, Lance noticed, his right ear twitching lightly at the odd tone it carried. 

“Ah, please follow me Paladins. I'll show you to the rooms you can use while you're here,” Coran said, standing up and heading down one hallway once the other paladins made to follow him. Lance knew they were being led to the rooms that the Paladin's traditionally used and something in his heart felt wrong about using those rooms, at least, for the time being.

“If... if it's okay, could I stay in the quarters I had before...?” Lance couldn't quite get an end onto his question. Before they went into stasis? Before Zarkon betrayed the Voltron Alliance? Before Lance's home world, his civilization was destroyed? Before everyone and everything he had ever loved was taken from him forever? Allura looked at him with understanding in her eyes and he was relieved to see it wasn't pity. Lance couldn't stand being pitied. 

“Yes, of course. If you are more comfortable there, you can stay there, but... let us know if you would like to move at all... or if there's anything we can do or you...” Allura said. He nodded once to her, grateful that there were others on board at least who understood the magnitude of the loss. They had lost it all too but... Allura and Coran had each other, at least, in a way that Lance didn't. He had known who they were of course, everyone on board had, but he hadn't really known them or spoken to them. 

Lance walked silently behind the other paladins until they reached the hallway that split off towards the servants quarters, and Lance turned off, grateful to get away from their noise. He normally was a chatterbox, an incessant flirt, and a truly extroverted socialite, but right now all he wanted was quiet. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare. Being a Paladin of Voltron was his dream when he was a child, but it wasn't worth this. It wasn't worth losing everything, and he wished more than anything that he was dreaming something terrible right now, that he'd wake up and not be the Blue Paladin, but on Altea, going on vacation in a week with his family. 

When he reached his door Lance paused and swallowed, before opening it up. There was no dust in the room, the castle automatically filtered the air after all. Everything was right where he had left it too. Books, clothing, pictures, letters... the pages on the letters had changed, even without dust. They looked older now, drier and brittle, like if he touched them, they might turn to dust. It made him feel all hollow and alone, to see the paper had aged so much. It was proof that this wasn't some horrible, unfunny prank. Proof it wasn't some lie or a way to mock him for something he'd done. Lance felt horribly empty, horribly alone in the universe in that moment, staring at those papers on his desk, right where he had left them, in the middle of writing back. 

A lump formed in his throat, and his vision blurred as tears formed in his eyes as the horrible emptiness inside filled with grief like he had never known before in his life. Lance sank to his knees, the tap of his knees hitting the floor echoing around the room, too loudly before the first choked sob escaped him. Another followed the first shortly, and quite soon he was curled up on the floor, sobbing openly and loudly for the loss of everything he'd ever known.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Lance. But hey, I figure this kind of loss is really enormous, so he should grieve right? We're gonna change POV each chapter I think, but it should be a single POV per chapter at least.


	4. Question Period

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wants the trust of the other Paladins. Without it, they can't form Voltron or fight the Galra empire, and he might end up back where he started. He can't tell them too much, and he can't lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few people were very upset with how Lance acted in the last chapter and I wanna say don't worry, he will realize he's being a huge bag of dicks in the next while. He might have trouble admitting it, but he will also feel very bad about all this too once he learns a thing. 
> 
> On a side note, I want to thank everyone who has left a Kudo, bookmarked this, or left a comment -especially the people who have left comments! I really appreciate those more than you can know, especially as I lack confidence in my writing, so it really helps me to know you guys enjoy this so far!

It was three days of nearly constant solitary confinement for Keith. They left him alone, more or less, except to bring him food goo, which tasted oddly better than the food goo on Galra ships. They also sent some clothing for him on the second day, a huge relief since the armour was uncomfortable to sleep in. He managed to bite a hole in the pants for his tail too, and right now he sat on the bed, staring at the ceiling silently as he waited for... anything. They wouldn't answer his questions usually when they did come, but it was always the orange-haired one. He had a very cold expression when he saw Keith. A knock on the door caused his right ear to lift up in curiosity. It wasn't time to eat after all... 

“Attention Galra warrior! We're coming in. Please stand with your feet and hands apart, your hands on the wall!” It was the youthful voice, the green paladin who spoke and Keith scowled a little bit before standing up and doing as the aliens told him. He wanted to make a snide comment but he didn't dare. Keith's ears both flicked backwards when he heard the door slide open and several people walked in. 

“No sudden movements. Actually, make a sudden movement, that gives me an excuse...” The pretty voice... the blue paladin really hated him huh? That felt like a bit of a slap, but he ignored it for now as Shiro placed something on one his left wrist. Shiro pulled Keith's arm gently behind his back though, and then took hold of Keith's right wrist and moved it back before clicking it in too. A restraint? It didn't seem all that tough a restraint, but Keith wouldn't test it. 

“Is... all of this really necessary?” Keith asked as Shiro led him out of the room and the blue paladin pressed the gun he was holding into Keith's back. He could feel the fur on his tail standing on end, the dark purple tuft on the end fluffing out especially as they walked. This whole thing was very unsettling to Keith, but then he didn't really know the full extend either of how bad the empire was yet. All he knew was there was a lot wrong with it really, even if he had trouble understanding a lot of it. 

“You're a Galra warrior, so, yes. It is unfortunately necessary, at least until we can determine that you're telling the truth...” Shiro said. His voice was gentler than the others though, which relieved Keith a little bit. It made him feel safer at any rate, knowing Shiro found this whole scenario to be unfortunate. 

“I'm not a warrior actually,” Keith said, supposing they should know. He wasn't a warrior though. Technically speaking he wasn't even a prison guard, he was supposed to be property. That part though he might leave out. If they didn't know just from his tail what he was, then maybe they didn't know a lot about the Galra. And maybe they wouldn't know he was useless. 

“You're... not? Then what are you?” Pidge asked, “Ah, you'll have to re-answer all of this when we hook you up though, so if you don't want to repeat yourself...” The young alien looked curious anyways. 

“I'm... a guard. Sort of. I also tried to keep prisoners in the arena alive after their fights. It wasn't exactly easy but I like to think I did a good job keeping them alive...” He'd only had five prisoners die in his care, and he really had tried for them. He even remembered the names and faces of those five, to try to honour them. The aliens did exchange looks with one another, but they didn't say anything more to him either until he was seated in a chair. The pretty one with silver hair and her orange-haired companion were waiting in the room for them, and the one that was really handsome and matched them went to stand with them instead of the ones who looked like Shiro. 

“This goes around your head... uh... oh. I forgot your ears were so big...” The smaller alien frowned in thought before trying to squish it on as gently as possible. It had an x cross over the top of his head, and a band that went around his forehead and the back of his head, but there was enough space to pop his ears out too between the metal bars that went over top of the purplish fluff on top of his head. Not the most comfortable, but he could manage like that for a while. His tail swished back and forth in curiosity, the wider alien watching in fascination. 

“Do all the Galra have tails?” He asked, the question whispered to the tiny alien who shrugged and made a noise of uncertainty in response. Shiro rolled his eyes, but he looked like he was smiling too at the question.

“No, most don't,” Keith said, as the tiny alien put a small clamp on his finger. He'd half expected it to pinch, but it didn't and he was relieved too. It was a little tight around his claw, but he'd manage. The tiny alien looked at the monitor and nodded to what he'd answered. 

“Looks like he's telling the truth there. Most Galra do not have tails. Okay! We're ready I think... what's your name, and rank inside of Zarkon's army?” The tiny one asked now, her expression went from calm to stern surprisingly quickly. It wasn't exactly intimidating though, considering the tiny alien being so... tiny. Kind of cute in a child-like way, that made Keith want to protect it. Odd... 

“Keith, and I didn't have a rank,” He said. The aliens all crowded around the screen and looked at it, all of them looking to the Tiny one first who nodded once. Then they all nodded too and looked back at Keith. “Can... I have your names? I need something to call you all other than... you know... tiny alien, tall alien, skinny alien... I already know Shiro though...” 

“You do?” Shiro looked surprised by that, which surprised Keith a little bit. Had he really forgotten? Keith did suppose that Shiro was in pretty poor condition though, the times they had interacted though. Maybe that was why he didn't remember much? 

“You were a famous gladiator... anyways, you can call me Pidge, that's Hunk, Lance, Coran, Princess Allura, and.... you already know Shiro I guess...” Pidge pointed to each person being referred to as she listed them all. Keith nodded to show he understood. 

“Did anyone on board the Galra ship tamper with the red lion?” Allura asked now, looking very sternly at him. She seemed angry with him somehow. Like he'd done something terrible, committed some heinous crime, only Keith didn't know what he'd done. Unless she knew he was running from his fate? Surely they knew he was useless too, though he wasn't entirely sure they were aware. Did the know qylar by sight? The others hadn't, but it didn't mean she didn't. 

“I... I wouldn't know. I always saw it with a particle barrier up, I don't think anyone had figured out how to get inside it. I would sneak into the cargo bay sometimes to look at it, since... it called me a lot. Sendak was down there too a lot of the time, trying to get the barrier down sometimes. He got very angry with it several times actually, it was kind of funny...” Keith said, smiling a little to himself at the memory of Sendak angrily kicking the barrier, only to be shocked by it in response and needing to go to the medical bay as a result. They all looked at Pidge again who nodded once. 

“Okay, so Keith, just to make sure this is working properly, could you tell us a lie?” Pidge asked, looking quite serious. Keith wasn't sure what to lie about really, so he thought of the most ridiculous thing he could. 

“I am a green and orange Kepplan sand worm,” Keith said, still a bit confused by needing to lie on purpose. Pidge, however, grinned at that, apparently satisfied with the results she got on her screen.

“That was a lie, see the spiky pattern that shows up now here? That shows when he's lying... okay, what else... I know! Why do you want to fight Zarkon and the Galra Empire?” Pidge asked. Keith frowned and looked down a little, needing to think for a moment on how to answer. 

“Because... the Empire is... wrong. And Zarkon is too. There is something terribly wrong about it all, and... even though I don't really understand it all, I know it is wrong. I can't... I couldn't do nothing. Not when the Empire has enslaved so many. If fighting the Empire makes things better then that's what I'm going to do.” Keith said, determined to do that, even if these people didn't want him. He knew it wasn't the best explanation, and it wasn't the whole truth either. Fighting back meant escaping, and surely no one in the empire would want a qylar that was a traitor? Not even the one who chose him. Pretty or not, Keith hoped he'd be executed for this instead of being sent back to his fate. Perhaps it was a selfish reason, but it was as good in his mind as anything else. Besides, away like this... he might be able to help his mother too. 

“I don't see a reason not to trust him...” Pidge shrugged, apparently accepting the results of her test. Keith was telling the truth though, and he saw no reason as to why it would tell them otherwise. Lance scowled though, apparently disappointed with it. Allura and Coran still looked cautious too. Shiro and Hunk relaxed too, though Hunk still seemed a touch nervous. It was possible his nervousness stemmed now from how on-edge the other three were though, rather than Keith being a Galra. 

“Where is Zarkon's high command? Have you ever been there?” Allura asked, looking like she wasn't ready to stop questioning him just yet. He probably didn't need the uncomfortable helmet now, but he kept it anyways just in case. Removing it meant there was a chance they would see it as an attempt to lie without them knowing after all, and he'd rather not risk that. 

“I don't know the coordinates, and there's no way you could beat him there anyways. Not with one ship and one Voltron. I've been there before, once. I was only ten though, I didn't really see a lot of the base either. All I really remember was that it was largest thing I've ever seen, before or since. It's extremely heavily guarded... I'm sorry but you just... can't. It would be suicide...” Especially with five people who had no idea how to pilot those lions properly. Maybe if they trained enough and learned to fight together, and maybe if they had a fleet of allied ships to help them out, but even then, Keith didn't see how they could win a fight like that without huge casualties. 

“Would you tell us what you do know then? About everything that's happened over the past ten thousand years?” Allura asked, looking a bit frustrated that Keith couldn't help her as much as she might have hoped. Keith felt a little dismayed that he couldn't either. Good information might have made him useful after all... 

“I'll try, anyways. I'm not that old though, I'm only nineteen... and like I said I wasn't doing much. I just kept the fighters alive after a fight and fed the prisoners. I've never even been on a planet before the other day. And anyways, we only learn what we need to in order to help serve our purpose to the empire. It would probably be higher ups who know what you want,” Keith hoped that wasn't too strange to them that he'd never actually set foot on a planet until now. He had lived on the nursery ship until he was fifteen when he escaped for other things. 

Qylar normally spent their whole lives on the same ship, with only a few exceptions. The prettiest ones were usually chosen by high-ranking officers to keep for personal use, chosen before their heat cycles began to ensure they weren't 'tainted' by being used by too many others. You were lucky if you were pretty enough to be chosen, presumably. Keith hadn't understood how, but his mother told him he would understand when he was older. Keith was older now. He still didn't get it. 

“So... is that how you know me?” Shiro asked, looking a bit concerned. He really didn't remember, did he? Keith was a bit concerned by that, but he wouldn't mind filling Shiro in on a lot of it... if he wanted it. And anyways, it looked like Shiro wasn't angry with him for it either, unlike the ones with pointy ears. 

“Yes. You weren't easy to keep alive, I might add. You seemed to have a death wish sometimes, with the way you fought. It really was something to watch though. Are all of your species that brave?” He asked, tail swishing excitedly. 

“I... I was? I... then, I guess I should thank you... for keeping me alive,” Shiro smiled, almost kindly and Keith felt warm. Like he had a friend. Keith had never really been thanked for anything before either. He was called a trouble-maker more than anything, the druids on his ship told him he was lucky he was so pretty, considering his temper, tenacity, and fiery nature. He was terrible at following orders until after he went on the run, but then he supposed that was an act of rebellion too. After he was chosen though they couldn't do much to him. Nothing that leaves a permanent mark, except to brand his collarbone with the mark of the one who chose him. All the high-ranking officers had their own mark to leave on the young qylar, to make sure there was no mistaking who that one belonged to. 

“I was happy to help...” Keith admitted, though now Pidge stood and took the helmet off of Keith's head with a soft sigh. Then she took the piece on his finger off. His claw did feel a bit pinched now, come to think of it, but he doubted that was intentional on Pidge's part.

“I don't suppose you know the humans that arrived with Shiro? Sam and Matt Holt?” She asked as she removed the items from Keith's body. Pidge apparently trusted him not to lie even without the truth-showing devices on him, and he did intend to. Her expression was one of concern, a small flicker of hope in her eyes too, as she asked, and Keith wished he could offer more than what he did. 

“Shiro was on that ship two months before I was... I'm afraid I didn't see anyone who came on board with him, or where the might have sent them. But... I know where you might find out. There's a chance some of the systems on Sendak's ship are still working, so you might be able to find their records if you can get the panels working again.” Her face fell when he'd started, but she looked more determined than ever when he told her the logs might still be there. Keith was beginning to suspect all of Shiro's species really was as stubborn and determined as Shiro was. 

“Then... will you help me try to find what I need?” She asked him. Her eyes were so hard for someone so tiny... Keith got the sense that if he said know she would find some way around that and get what she wanted anyways. He nodded his head yes, and she seemed appeased, smiling a little and relaxing. Keith had a feeling that it might take longer than this though for them to trust him, especially Lance, Allura, and Coran, all of whom looked at him with suspicion still, despite the results. 

“So... are you all from the same planet? Or different... genders on the same one?” Keith asked now, too curious to avoid asking that any longer. They looked between themselves a bit surprised by it, though the three who didn't like him still seemed almost offended that he didn't know. 

“Different planets. Pidge, Hunk, and I are from a planet called Earth. It's... very far away from here. On the outer edge of the Milky-Way Galaxy. Lance, Coran and Allura are from a planet called Altea...” Shiro explained, smiling at him almost gently. Shiro was really good at being comforting, just through simple little things. It wasn't something Keith was used to, but he already liked it. He felt like Shiro at least would accept him, even if no one else did.


	5. The Secret Mission of the Blue Paladin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Langst! Thank you again for all your wonderful comments! A few people have started guessing what will happen next and honestly it makes me so happy that people are trying to predict what I'm going to do because I get all giddy when someone guesses right and I can't say anything... Also I apologize for this chapter taking longer, I actually wrote it completely and then re-wrote the whole thing because I hated it. I like this better...

It didn't matter if the Galra wasn't lying, Lance would not trust him as far as he could... well. Okay, so he could probably throw Keith pretty far, Altean's were strong and Keith was pretty small, and he didn't look like he weighted much. Point of the matter, Lance did not trust him. Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk all seemed honest and kind enough. Lance liked them just fine, but Keith... Keith was different. Keith was infuriating! Lance knew he had no real reason to distrust Keith any more. He passed Pidge's test perfectly, but even so, Lance was still sulking about it. More privately than before of course, since the humans were giving him a hard time for not trusting Keith within minutes of determining he wasn't a liar. Lance had secluded himself to an observation deck for now, too irritated to think clearly and lost in thought all the same.

He'd daydreamed about being a Paladin of course, but he'd never thought of being the Blue Paladin. Red maybe, or Black. Black had chosen Zarkon over him. Zarkon, who proceeded to ruin everything, betraying them all, and killing everything that Lance had ever loved. And Red... Red had chosen Keith, another warrior of the Galra empire. Something touched and tainted by what Zarkon had built, which meant Keith was touched and tainted by Zarkon himself in Lance's mind. Even if he wasn't lying... even if a large part of Lance knew that wasn't true, knew he was being selfish and terrible about this.

“I know how you're feeling...” A voice called out from behind him, startling Lance out of his reverie. He was looked out over the cliffs the castle was on now, at the ocean, though most of this must have formed around it in the past ten thousand years. Allura's presence was welcome though and he looked over at her, a little sullen, unable to summon more than a forced smile in her direction.

“With a pretty lady in the room? My mood's improved a lot~” He said, though his heart wasn't in the line either. Allura was beautiful of course, and she was one of the last three Altean's left in the universe. He supposed that meant he did actually have a shot with her, even if he was just a servant. No, he wasn't now, was he?

“Right...” Allura looked unimpressed by his line, and Lance did not miss the roll of her eyes. She looked concerned all the same though, and Lance nodded to prompt her on. “I have a... rather odd request for you, Lance. A mission if you will.”

“A mission huh? Ain't nothing in the universe I can't handle babe, trust me~!” Lance said, winking in her direction as he turned around, leaning against the safety bar that kept him away from the windows. Allura scowled properly at him with that, but she was pretty anyways.

“Is that really any way to speak to your princess?” She huffed at him, her brilliantly blue eyes narrowed at him and Lance grinned playfully in response. He hadn't been so forward before all of this, he sure as shit would not have pulled out his pick up lines on her before he woke up to all of this... but now? Why not. “This aside... I do have a mission for you. One that I can only entrust to you...” Lance grew more serious at that.

“I see... wouldn't have something to do with... the new Red Paladin, would it?” He asked, having a bit of a hunch on that one. She nodded once, leaning on the safety bar and staring out at the oceans of Arus, her expression inscrutable.

“I don't trust him, even if the others all do. I... I can't. And the others... they aren't like us. They haven't lost what we have to the Galra, not even Shiro. I'm honestly not sure he counts, he can't remember what happened to him. But you understand. So until we can truly be sure that we can trust... _Keith_... then I need you to be my eyes and ears inside the paladins.” Lance noted her hesitation in saying Keith's name. He could see how serious she was about this too, and he knew better than to joke about it.

“You want me to report to you about him?” Lance asked. He could do that, probably. It shouldn't be too hard after all.

“In short, yes. If anything arouses your suspicions about him then I want you to come directly to me about it. It... may not be easy though. I don't envy you the task but... I need you to get close to him. To treat him like a friend...” She looked apologetic as she asked, and Lance scowled deeply.

“I have to what now? No. Nopedy nope, nope, nope. Not happening, I am not being friends with a _Galra_. Maybe ten thousand years ago when they hadn't fucked everything in the universe up, sure, but they're all tainted now. Ten thousand years, there has to have been at least a few cultural shifts, and I don't know much about them to begin with,” Lance said.

“Lance... I know you're angry about this. Believe me, I am too. We've both lost everything to the Galra empire, we both lost everything we held dear when Zarkon betrayed us. I am not willing to risk that again. I will not let Keith be the reason for our downfall now, not when I could prevent it by having a man on the inside,” Her voice was angry, her glare stern, and it was actually frightening. It was unsettling to see Allura so angry, he had never seen it before in all his years on board.

“How. How am I supposed to just... make nice with him? You can preach about that until the blygard's come home, but that doesn't make it easier for me to just act all buddy-buddy with a Galra warrior! The ones with the tails are way more vicious than any of the others anyways, you ever seen those guys fight? Cuz I was in a bar on Rylax one time and oh boy. They're small, but they're tricky, temperamental little fuckers, he's probably a well trained spy! I don't know how Pidge's machine worked, but he must have tricked it some how!”

“I agree. That's why you have to do this. Set aside your pride Lance, you're a Paladin now, and you're the only one of them I can really trust!” Allura snapped back at him. She probably didn't care about the tiny little Galra he'd seen wreck shit on Rylax ten thousand and some years ago. All the same, it did give him pause and he huffed out a soft sigh.

“I'll... I'll try. I can't promise anything, but... I'll try to make friends with him... if it turns out he is a spy, maybe we stop him before he does anything serious. If he ain't... well. I guess it's good for forming Voltron, huh?” Lance asked. Allura nodded once and smiled, her gaze returning to the ocean and Lance turned around again to stare at it with her.

“I'll have to move him to one of the rooms in the Paladin wing for the time being... and allow him free range of the castle. Everywhere the other Paladin's are allowed to go,” Allura didn't look too pleased by that thought.

“Mm. Well. He promised the pipsqueak that he'd go to the Galra ship with her. Get the information on her father and brother... I guess I should go with them? They were planning on it tomorrow, unless you had other plans for us?” He knew they should try to figure out how to form Voltron. Lance more or less had some vague idea about it. Form a bond with your lion, and form a bond with the team. Work together, fight together, win together. Linked at the ears like a pack of yelmore's.

“Well, I was hoping to do some team-building exercises, but I suppose if you went out tomorrow... it'll take time to get what they need, and get it translated too, Keith may not know what all is important... I'll speak to them tomorrow too.” Allura sighed. “The ocean here... it's different isn't it?” Blue instead of the greenish water Altea had. Allura's voice was soft, sad, as she recalled it.

“Yeah...” Lance said, his voice like hers was. He missed it so much... to him it hadn't been very long since they were there, but it had left such a hole in his heart too, knowing he would never go back. It was difficult to believe, to comprehend. Sometimes Lance forgot for a while. He'd be distracted or he'd forget that it was gone. Those were the good moments, the times he almost longed for, since he felt like himself again... and then he'd remember. It was like being dunked into ice-cold water very suddenly, remembering that it was all gone. Just like that...

“I'm... gonna go talk to the others then. See if I can't... work my way into the fold or... whatever.” Lance pushed away from the bar and walked out. “Keith... he's gonna need the Red Paladin's uniform and bayard too... if we're selling the line that we trust him now, anyways...” He didn't face her as he said it, but he could almost hear her scowling at the thought as he walked out, turning back towards the common rooms. Lance liked it about as much as she did.

He walked slowly, enjoying the quiet hum of the castle... and hating it all at once. It left him alone with his thoughts again, and he hated that. It was so quiet now, when once these hallways bustled with life. The castle was meant to hold hundreds of people... the paladin's, their families, the royal Altean family, staff and crew for food, maintenance, health... All of them were gone now. Lance wondered if all of them had been killed after all, during the evacuation not all of the escape pods were destroyed. Lance wondered too if Altea was destroyed before or after he went to sleep. If the former, it meant that King Alfor hadn't told them on purpose. Maybe he hadn't known himself that their home was gone? And Keith... Lance didn't know what to do. How could he trust Keith?

 

“Hey guys...” Lance said as he entered the common room. He waved one hand and the humans eyed him cautiously. Keith seemed cautious too, but Lance wondered if it was because he so far was kind of an ass-hole or if it was because he really was a spy.

“Hey Lance...” Shiro said, his tone cautious, but optimistic. He was hoping to keep the peace apparently, but he needn't be worried. Lance wasn't here to start a fight this time.

“I uh... sorry. Keith. I haven't been... the nicest to you even though you weren't lying... so uh... sorry. For being rude...” Lance said, managing not to scowl at Keith through the apology. He wasn't remotely serious with the apology after all, but he needed them to think he was.

“It's fine... I mean... the Galra are our enemy right?” Keith asked. He looked a bit torn about that, and Lance didn't miss it either. Keith may not be so sure about his decision to run, but Lance knew if Keith really had betrayed the empire, there was no way Zarkon would take him back into the empire either. Execution probably awaited Keith if he was ever captured. Then again, that's what awaited all of them, Lance had no doubt about that.

“Right... and uh... I mean... sorry. I'll try to do better...” Lance said, awkward, but at least it was an apology, even if he didn't really mean it. The humans relaxed though at that, smiling a little, and Keith seemed to accept Lance's apology at face value too, smiling softly, though without his teeth visible.

“So, Keith and I were going to go to Sendak's ship tomorrow to get the data out of it... you wanna come too Lance?” Pidge asked, giving him a big grin.

“Huh? Oh... about that, you may need to put it off. Allura wants us to figure out Voltron first, so we gotta see if we can form it. Might have to put off getting that intel a couple of days but I'm sure it'll still be there too...” Lance shrugged.

“But-!"

“Pidge, Lance is right. The ship isn't going anywhere right now, so it can wait until we know how to form Voltron. But I'll go with you both too when we're done too, we can all go with you,” Shiro said with a gentle smile, and a hand on her shoulder.

“I.... fine. Okay... Thanks Shiro...” She sighed, but she seemed to deflate too. Lance worried a little, but all he knew was her family were captives too. Probably a good reason for her to distrust Keith too, and yet... she accepted him without issue. Lance couldn't understand it, but then, he was conflicted with this himself.

“Hey uh... in the mean time, do we have any more food goo? Because I am _starving_ but I don't know where the kitchen in here is...” Keith's ears flattened as he spoke, his tail tapping the seat rapidly in agitation. It was cute... even if he was a Galra, Lance knew it was cute.

“Yeah, this way. You... actually want the food goo though?” Hunk asked, making a face at Keith.

“You may not believe this, but somehow it's _way_ better then the food goo on the Galra ships...” Keith said, looking dead serious, and Lance snorted at the expression on the yellow paladin's face at that.

 


	6. Learning to Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith learns the biggest obstacle to forming Voltron might be him, and he falls in love with planets. Lance is acting kinder towards him too, but his motives could be sinister too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, ever since S2 aired this story has gotten a huge increase in hits, kudo's, comments, and bookmarks. I wonder if something happened in canon... nah, must be a coincidence. Anyways, we get to have a real fight scene in the next chapter, and it's gonna hopefully be cool. 
> 
> Also, for the sake of this story: Please pretend s2 does not exist.

Voltron was a smashing failure. Not one thing they tried succeeded in forming it, and Keith was certain that Lance blamed him for it. Keith was _trying_ to be a good team mate to them all, but he wasn't exactly sure how to do that. Keith didn't know how to trust others, not with his mind, not with his memories, and not with helping him survive. He knew that at least some of this _was_ his fault, but it couldn't be entirely so, could it? No. There had to be another reason behind their struggle to form Voltron too, and Keith wondered now if maybe Lance was as genuine as he'd seemed three days ago.

He was grateful to reach his room, beginning to pull off the red paladin armour that he wore now, and setting it aside carefully as he dug through the clothing they had provided him with for something more light weight and loose fitting. Galra didn't sweat, and he felt too warm from being run through the ringer for a third day in a row as they struggled to get their team dynamic in order, especially in the heavy and pretty warm uniform. At least it stretched around his tail, so he could still use it comfortably while wearing the armour.

Keith breathed an audible sigh of relief when he was able to pull the black under-suit off finally and gave a little shake to get his fur fluffed out a little, helping to cool himself off a little faster, though he couldn't help but notice it again when he caught his reflection in the mirror. Keith peeled off the rest of his uniform and set it aside with the harder, heavier armour pieces before going back to the mirror and frowning into it. Golden yellow eyes glared back at him as he stared at himself. He looked so different from these aliens. His eyes narrowed more as he looked at his own collar bone.

The fur where he had been branded had never grown back, leaving the mark more visible than Keith liked it to be. He'd prefer not to have it at all, but he'd had no say in the matter, and he was too small and weak at the time to fight back. He hadn't come of age yet back then after all. They were always selected before their first heat cycles, Keith was told before they were alone in the room with nearly all of Zarkon's High Command. He had been told that if any of them were chosen, it was a high honour, but that it was more likely that none of them would be chosen. Or only one. The druid had looked at Keith with a smirk as they told him he was definitely going to be chosen. They hadn't seen a qylar _that_ pretty in decades.

The commanders were all quite choosy when it came to selecting a qylar, wanting them as pretty as possible. In his group, all seventeen of them had been chosen by someone too, an exceptionally pretty batch, one commander had joked as they were led away to be burned and marked by the druids. Keith raised one hand, tracing the raised flesh lightly with the curved part of his claw, sighing softly. Two circles, one atop another, and a crescent on each side, the open side facing out to the left and right. He hated it. He wondered vaguely how badly it would hurt to simply claw it off his own body, but he dismissed the idea and finally grabbed his pants, pulling them on. He tugged on a black tank top too, figuring this would better suite his intentions to hit the training deck on his own, now that he had the option.

Sure, he'd spent nearly all day there with the rest of the team, but that had only made him aggravated and angry, and right now he needed to blow off some steam. The best thing he could think to do was to hack and slash repeatedly at training droids until he exhausted himself totally, and this time in something less stifling then his paladin armour. Lance always eyed him oddly close when he wore it too, he wasn't sure yet why. Then again, Keith had yet to call him on that.

He walked faster then he meant to, bayard in hand as he reached the now empty training deck, and stretched lightly before activating his sword. The growl from his stomach told him that he should eat something, but he knew he'd been eating too much lately too. If he wasn't careful, he might trigger a heat cycle, and he really didn't like the idea of being out of commission for a full week like that. He knew better, he knew how to control it. Keith cursed himself mentally for not thinking on that until now.

“Start training, level one,” He told the computers, which beeped lightly in response before a droid dropped into the training area. Keith crouched low, a soft growl leaving him at the sight of it, immediately letting his mind register 'enemy' to the drone. The drone moved towards Keith, and Keith moved low, ducking below it to slash at it's legs first, though it blocked the hit. Keith ducked and wove around the drone for the better part of ten minutes before he finally got his tail wrapped around it's ankles, tripping it up and driving his sword through it with a victorious grin. He was breathing heavily, panting lightly, his fur on end to try and regular his temperature. Keith was breathing heavily enough that he picked up another persons scent then and both his ears swivelled to point to the door before his head had followed suit.

“Lance.” Keith said calmly, still struggling to get his breathing under control. It had been a lot of work with just himself, but if he couldn't do it alone, he couldn't survive. Only the strong survived.

“Keith.” Lance answered back, his blue eyes fixated on Keith. Something was happening in Lance's mind too, but Keith was too tired to concern himself with it right now.

“What do you want?” Keith bit back the snap he had in his voice, knowing it wouldn't help him any right now. If he remained calm then Lance might eventually come to consider him a teammate. Maybe even a friend? Keith could only hope so.

“Oh. You uh... you didn't show up for dinner so everyone was wondering where you went off to, I guess. You're panting pretty hard for just one drone though, I mean that setting is fit for an Altean child~” Lance smirked as he eyed Keith closely. Keith bristled at the comment too, already in a foul mood from being worked over too hard. Not to mention Lance's apparent continued mistrust and Coran and Allura's apparent hatred of him.

“Tch. You do better then!” Keith snapped, his tail snapping outward behind himself like a whip and causing Lance to jump a little, a flash of surprise crossing his face. It gave Keith an odd sense of satisfaction, knowing he'd at least startled the obstinate Altean.

“I mean, I _would_ , but we should probably focus on _you_ getting better right? So I guess start it over and I'll be your ranged support while you fight it!” Lance walked in closer with a confident enough stride that Keith almost forgot Lance's momentary fright when Keith had snapped and growled at him. Keith's ears dropped a millimetre at the suggestion as Keith relaxed a little bit now in Lance's presence.

“You. Want to fight with _me_? You sure you didn't hit your head during training or something, because I'm pretty sure you still hate me, even if you _did_ apologize,” Keith frowned, hoping he hid the concern and hurt he felt enough that Lance wouldn't pick up on it. Keith didn't know what he or the Galra had done to the Alteans, but he suspected that it was something terrible enough to earn such a deep hatred from the trio too.

“Hm? No, no, I trust you! I don't like you, true, but I trust you!” Lance waved a hand nonchalantly with a proud little smile. That didn't help really, but Keith supposed they probably didn't need to like each other did they? Would trusting one another, even without liking each other be enough to let them form Voltron? ' _So was it really me, this whole time, keeping us from forming Voltron then?'_ Keith wondered.

“Okay. Fine then,” Keith didn't really have an argument against this after all. He could call Lance a bigot, but he doubted very much that it would make any difference. Actually, working with Lance might help Keith learn how to trust others too, after all and he apparently needed to learn that still if they were going to form Voltron. When the next droid popped out of the ceiling, he was quick to move in on it too, but now he had to be sure he wasn't in Lance's sights.

 

* * *

 

 

Keith hadn't realized how much he hated space until they were preparing to launch. He wished he could stay here on the surface of Arus for the rest of his life, enjoying the fresh air, the clear oceans, and most of all, the _food_. Hunk had made something from the ingredients foods to celebrate them finally forming Voltron, and it had been like nothing Keith could have ever imagined. He didn't mind the food goo the Altean's had, but the food Hunk had made had at least given him great insight into why the earthlings hated it so much.

Keith had grown to love planets so quickly, it was almost startling. He loved rain and sunsets the most though, out of everything on the planet. Rain had really shocked him though, and he had yelped and hidden behind Shiro when the first drop hit his ear. Lance initially laughed until a drop hit him in the forehead and he picked Pidge up bodily to use her as a shield against it, declaring the rain to be very strange. They apparently hadn't had rain on Altea. Coran mentioned something similar that sounded not at all the same to do with rocks, but Keith had quickly fallen in love with it, fascinated that planets could do something like that.

“Keith, hey!” Lance said, waving lightly as he walked up to where Keith sat on the bridge, watching the sun set. They were launching at dawn tomorrow, and so this would be his last one for a while probably.

“Hey. What do you want Lance?” Keith asked, only sparing him a glance. Lance was pretty, but he'd get to stare at Lance plenty when they launched. He had no idea if they would even land on another planet again. Well, at least not for a while.

“You're missing the party you know. It's pretty good,” Lance said as he sat down beside Keith, staring out into the sunset too.

“Well, I'm fine here. I don't like crowds, and that purple stuff smells pretty nasty anyways,” Keith shrugged lightly, though the gasp from Lance made him look and blink.

“I will have you know that nunvill is the nectar of the Gods Keith!” Lance said, though his tone told Keith he wasn't actually angry. He was getting better at figuring out when people -especially Lance- were actually angry with him, and when they were joking, but it had been a bit of a rough time getting there, and he wasn't perfect there either.

“Right, right. You enjoy your purple nectar then, but I'm pretty sure the God's wouldn't touch that with a ten meter pole,” Keith snorted. Lance pouted a little at him before sipping it again.

“Mm, it does taste pretty disgusting. But the buzz is nice, and it makes your tongue all tingly too, but only if you swallow it. Here, you try,” Lance said, holding the cup out. Tingly tongue huh? Keith had never been buzzed either, so he was a little curious. Shiro and Hunk said it was pleasant. Pidge was told she wasn't allowed to drink nunvill yet, though she had said she would prefer her wits about her anyways. Keith privately agreed that seemed wisest, especially since they still didn't know if there were any survivors off Sendak's ship.

“Tingly tongue huh?” Keith took the cup and swished the purplish liquid a little bit before taking a small sip. He felt a tremble run up his body at the taste, but he swallowed and sure enough, his tongue tingled. His whole spine felt like it tingled right now, really. Oh, that was terrible.

“That bad, huh?” Lance asked with a laugh, grinning brightly at Keith. Lance had slowly been getting friendlier, and Keith wasn't sure if it was genuine or not, but he would like to hope Lance meant this all. Lance was so beautiful after all, and Keith knew he might end up doing something stupid if Lance kept being pretty _and_ nice to him.

“Oh yeah. That's even worse than the food goo off the Galra ships, and I didn't think anything was worse than that. Not worth it,” Keith said, handing the cup back. Lance gave a laugh at that before downing it without issue.

“You should come inside, it's kinda chilly out here,” Lance said, standing up and offering Keith a hand to help him stand. Keith took it without hesitating, smiling a little bit. Sunset or Lance's smile. Turns out Lance beat's sunsets.

“I _do_ have fur you know,” Keith joked lightly.

“Hah! Oh, that is true, I guess you're probably fine right? Plus the paladin uniforms have built in heating units inside the suit to keep us warm in space and all, so I guess you can turn that on if you're really cold.”

“If only they had cooling units too,” Keith muttered as he walked inside. The sun was mostly gone anyways, so he may as well go inside where the others were.

“Hey, if you get too warm in the suit, that's a problem too, I could talk to Allura for you if you want, see if we can't-- Keith? You okay?” Lance asked. Keith had paused at the entryway, sniffing the air in alarm. The wind had shifted as they got near it, and the scent it carried was familiar, and it worried him.

“I-I think so?” The scent was gone almost as quick as it had appeared, and the wind hadn't changed either. He could have sworn he smelled... but no. It wasn't possible.

“Keith?” Lance sounded concerned, and he did pull his bayard out, though he hadn't formed it into his gun just yet.

“Nothing. No, it's nothing. Come on, let's go inside and enjoy the party. We're supposed to be up early to launch tomorrow, right?”

“Right. You know, apparently only Shiro's actually been in space before out of the humans? Not counting them arriving here anyways. Hunk and Pidge haven't ever piloted anything before the lions. Overheard him talking with Allura about getting us all piloting training.” Lance said.

“Might be good. I haven't piloted anything before either.”

“What? Never? But... but you're so good!” Lance sounded almost hurt that Keith had never done this before. It sort of fluffed Keith's ego to hear Lance whine the rest of the night until they finally had to send the Arusian's out so they could all sleep.

 


	7. Launch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ship launches from Arus, but there may be an extra guest or two on board.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, Keith was not single-handedly responsible for Voltron not forming, but that will get touched on a little more later on rather than right away... (Sorry Keif)
> 
> Anyways, here it is! (I do apologize for the delay, I had a lot on my plate for a while there and wasn't able to write as much as I'd have liked)

“ _Uncle Lance, you're silly! You can't be a paladin, I'm gonna be!” Lucia said, her young face alight with glee at the declaration._

“ _Luna! I can be a paladin with you! There's five you know, so we'll just both be paladins. You can have the... which one do you want to be?”_

“ _Oh! Um. Blue! That's the friendliest right? Momma says that you said it's the friendliest lion!” Lucia said. She was so little, and Lance picked her up in his arms with a small laugh as her brother pouted._

“ _What about me? I wanna be with a friendly lion too! I can be a paladin too, right Uncle Lance?” Raul asked._

“ _Of course you can be a paladin too! Uhhh, which one do you want to be?” Lance asked, grinning a little._

“ _Yellow! I wanna be the Yellow one!” Raul decided. “We can both be the legs, and Uncle Lance can be the Black Paladin and be in charge! Voltron would be funner if Uncle Lance was the boss of it.” The boy crossed his arms, nodding knowingly._

“ _Ah? I could do that. I wouldn't mind being the red one though, I'd look good in red~” Lance joked happily as he sat down now, settling Lucia into his lap instead._

Lance felt something on his face as he opened his eyes, staring at the grey wall opposite his bed and reached up to brush away the tears. He was crying in his sleep again it seemed, and he sat up slowly, tempted to turn off his alarm, lay back down, and keep dreaming about those two. His niece and nephew really had wanted to be paladin's too, but neither of them could now. Being a paladin now lost some of it's appeal. Lance could hardly share his honour with anyone he had loved after all, and it was made all the worse that he was chosen by the one Luna had wanted.

Slowly he swung his feet out from the bed and tapped the wall with two fingers to silence his alarm. The floor was cold under his bare feet and he enjoyed the sensation in an odd way as he stood up and headed to the bathroom. A bit of cold water on his face helped him wake up a little, but did nothing to make the void inside himself less severe. At least he no longer looked like he had been crying at any rate.

Lance was slow to shuffle to the kitchen where the other paladins were eating food goo in tired silence. Shiro looked wide awake, but Pidge was poking at her food goo while Hunk snored at the table, head resting on one of his hands. Keith sat with his ears drooped, tail totally still and resting on the floor as he absentmindedly sucked on his spoon. He blinked very slowly at the bowl of greenish goo in front of him too, apparently forgetting that he had to dip his spoon back into it in order to get more.

Lance yawned and grabbed a bowl for himself before settling at the table too, which prompted Hunk's head to slide off his hand making him snort and start awake. Pidge snorted lightly in amusement and Keith remembered to take another bite. A small chain reaction, but it did seem to make the others a little more alive all the same.

“Did it have to be sunrise?” Pidge whined softly, clearly not enjoying being awake any more than Lance was currently. He agreed with her privately of course, Pidge was absolutely right. Sunrise was a horrible time to be awake. Any time was a horrible time to be awake, Lance wished he could sleep for eternity inside a pod and dream about those he had lost and day gone by. Sleep was far preferable to this emptiness that had taken root inside him since he had first learned of Altea's destruction.

“Allura and Coran said now is the best time for it. You guys should have gone to sleep earlier if you were going to be this tired for the launch. Come on, finish eating and we can go to the bridge,” Shiro said. His words carried a scolding sort of tone to them and Lance found it mildly irritating that Shiro seemed to be trying to parent them. Anyways, it was completely not fair, that party went on late after all! Lance managed to swallow enough food goo to keep his stomach quiet for a while and stood up. Keith did too, though it seemed that Keith had eaten even less than Lance had. No wonder he looked so scrawny, the stupid Galra was definitely not eating enough. Lance poked Hunk awake again as Pidge made her way slowly to her feet with a wide yawn.

“Hnuh? Time to go?” Hunk asked as he blinked at the movement from his fellow paladins. He stood up and followed them out, though he took his almost full food goo bowl with him too, eating it as he walked instead. It was a long, shuffling silence to the bridge, and Shiro strode in, tall and awake while the others tiredly made their way over to their respective seats and collapsed there.

“Oh good, you're all ready. I've got just a few things to enter and there. Coran, begin the count down until launch. Shiro, you may want to sit too,” Allura said, placing her hands on the controls. Something came up behind her as she did so, a metal sheet to keep Allura in place during the launch. Lance noticed Keith seemed to perk up when the view screens came up to show the rising sun on the horizon while Coran counted down to the launch.

When he hit five the whole ship began to vibrate, and Lance felt himself gripping the armrests a little bit tighter. Lance found himself watching Keith again, and was surprised to see Keith had flattened his ears low against his head, making them almost invisible, since the darker purple of his ears matched the darker purple fluff on the top of his head. The humans were varying degrees of serious expressions mixed with excitement and exhaustion, but Keith was afraid.

When Coran hit one Lance felt his back hit the backrest of his chair in the same moment everyone else's did as the engines pushed with everything they had to get them out of the plant's gravity field. The screens showed them leaving the ground, though it took all the strength Lance had to lift his head back up again so he could watch their launch instead of Keith. He only managed a couple of centimetres off the back rest as it was. Lance allowed his head to rest against it again only once he could see the screens.

Arus shrank beneath them as they rose into the sky, getting a good look at the ocean they had been beside, and watching it disappear. The view screens showed it all getting smaller, and smaller, and then it showed a film over the planet and Lance could see the stars. He grinned a little in a tiny burst of excitement, looking over and seeing similar expressions on Hunk and Pidge, though Keith looked almost disappointed. Shiro, Allura, and Coran were all faced away from him so he could not see, though he imagined they looked serious more than anything else.

“Well, that's that I guess. How long are we staying in this system?” Lance asked, moving forward again and standing, now that he could. The metal braces that had kept Coran and Allura standing for the launch lowered now and Allura turned to look at him.

“Not long. I'm going to run a few diagnostics to make sure we really are up to speed. Our first stop is for supplies though, not far from here. We need some things for the ship, but also food, and water. After that we'll begin looking for occupied systems and we will begin to fight,” Allura said.

“Sounds good. I'm gonna go train then, I guess. Keith, you wanna come?” Lance asked. He was caring less and less that Keith was Galra. It still worried him now and then, but training with Keith really was creating a bond of trust if nothing else. Lance knew Keith would protect him from drones anyways, though he still was not what he would call 'entirely confident' that Keith would kill another Galra.

“Yeah, I'm in, let's go...” Keith agreed, standing up. Keith glanced at the view screen one last time, at Arus as it disappeared before following Lance out into the hallway, then to the elevator. Lance leaned against the wall of the elevator as it hummed softly, leading them down several floors, but not fast enough for his liking. Lance acted more friendly towards Keith than he wanted to be really. He was being friendly, and Keith seemed to be buying it, and so did the other Paladin's but Lance would still prefer anyone else in the universe be the Red Paladin. If Keith died in battle maybe Coran could take over. The door wooshed open, snapping Lance out of his half-asleep mindless thought train and they both stepped out, though Keith paused, a small frown tugging at his lips.

“Something wrong?” Lance asked. He did not _really_ care if there was. Keith could be replaced by someone else, but then again, Lance thought, maybe _he_ should be replaced instead. If Lance died he could see his family again after all, and right now he was sleep-deprived enough that his mind would not flinch away from the intrusive thought quite so easily.

“No. I-I just thought... but I think I must be just imagining things,” Keith shook his head, turning and heading for the training deck. Keith had done that last night too, on Arus, and it did worry Lance a little bit. Sure, he or Keith were replaceable enough, but the humans still had a reason to live, and Allura and Coran were valuable and important team members. The humans stood no chance without Allura, and Coran had not been hand picked by Alfor for nothing.

“You did this last night too. Is it a different smell? Do Galra get... I dunno, nose hallucinations or something?” Lance asked. He was acting like he always did, it was the only way in his mind to pretend nothing was wrong. Anyways, Keith smelling something weird might prove a better distraction to him than training would. It may also be something important too, although that was more of an afterthought to Lance.

“Same one, but it can't be. Hey, there _are_ internal sensors on board right?” Keith asked. Lance rolled his eyes, scoffing and was about to crack a joke when he froze. Internal sensors? 

“What  _ exactly _ are you smelling Keith?” He asked. His voice faltered a little more than he meant for it to. Certainly the castle  _ had _ sensors to detect for intruders, but the castle did also still have a few bugs to work out and they had definitely not found them all yet. 

“We need to go back up,” Keith said, his tone growing serious and concerned. Lance gave one nod and turned on his heel back towards the elevator with Keith close behind him. Lance felt tense as they entered, and the ride seemed to take far longer than it was supposed to. Lance guessed they must be about halfway back when the ship rocked with an explosion, shutting their power down. The blast sent both of them tumbling as the lights went out and Lance felt Keith collide into him as they were knocked into the wall.

“What the hell was  _ that _ ?! What did you smell Keith?!” Lance was suddenly very concerned by this situation. He was expendable, but his princess was not. Keith was hiding something after all, Lance knew he was acting shifty! 

“Galra! I thought I smelled other Galra, I just! I thought I was imagining it! I don't really recognize their scent but it's familiar enough so they were probably on Sendak's ship and decided to stow away on board!” Keith snapped, moving off of Lance as he spoke. Lance couldn't see anything, but he could hear Keith moving in the darkness, his claws scratching at the doors. “We have to get out of here!”

“No, really?” Lance asked, his tone about as sarcastic as it could get as he stood up, a little disoriented. He couldn't see, and the darkness was like nothing he had ever experienced before now. He reached out blindly, startled a little bit when his fingertips brushed fur and Keith yelped in surprise.

“Lance! What the hell?!” Keith snapped and Lance scowled in response, annoyance flaring for just a moment.

“I can't see anything, so  _ excuuuuuse _ me!” Lance grumbled. When Keith spoke next, Lance was a little surprised by the change in his tone. 

“Oh. Altean's can't see in the dark?” Keith asked him, his tone gentle and perhaps a touch worried. So Galra could see in the dark? Well, certainly Lance knew they had better night vision than Altean's did, but to be able to see in  _ this _ level of darkness was kind of impressive. 

“Not really, no. I mean, I can a little bit, but only if there's a little bit of light, and there isn't, so I'm blind right now,” Lance said with a soft sigh.   
  
“Okay, I'm going to touch your arm. I can see a panel on the ceiling, so I need you to lift me up so I can reach it. We can probably find our way into an air vent or something, and make our way back up. If this _ was _ an attack, we need to help the Princess get things running again and find the intruders,” Keith said. 

“Yeah, sounds good. Excellent. Let's do this thing,” Lance agreed, though he shivered lightly when he felt the brush of Keith's hand against his arm first. It was definitely awkward, getting Keith up high enough too, Keith climbing haphazardly into Lance's arms, Lance's face uncomfortably low on Keith's abdomen. If Keith was anything other than a Galra, Lance might not find this quite so objectionable. At least Keith was cute anyways.

“Almost... there, got it!” As Keith spoke light flooded in again and Lance felt an odd combination of relief and disappointment. Lance had to hoist Keith a little higher so that Keith could pull himself through the space and atop the elevator, which was thankfully well lit. Keith lay flat against it and reached down, grabbing Lance's hands, and helping Lance pull himself up and out too, though Lance did notice Keith was using his tail as an anchor.

“Okay. So then, how do we get out of the elevator shaft?” Keith asked, looking for the nearest air vent. It was a few hundred meters up unfortunately. Lance sighed heavily though and eyed Keith.

“Well, actually, I do have  _ one _ idea that might work.” 

 


	8. Invasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Galra on board the ship, and possibly everyone else unconscious or captive, it's up to Lance and Keith to come up with a plan. Keith has to take on Haxus, alone, and Lance has to figure something out for Sendak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, but hey, four stories and my laptop has been dead for two weeks out of the last four, and been replaced TWICE so at least I have a valid excuse. (I also moved. It's been a month.)

So far today had gone from slightly irritating to a total shit storm. He had been made to wake up far too early, he could not eat all of his meal without risking setting off a heat, but he had no idea what the correct amount was to eat to stay healthy while avoiding it, and then? Oh, and then he had to climb up a person, and then link arms with them to climb up and out of an elevator shaft and into an air vent. And getting into the vent was no easy feat either, Keith had to kick in the vent, then Lance had to kick off just right and at precisely the moment Keith had moved to make sure he got into the vent.

Keith had barely managed to get his tail around something inside the vent to stop them plummeting to their deaths on top of the elevator, and naturally Lance's weight meant he had it essentially pulled which hurt like hell. Not as bad as a shock from a druid, but bad enough to send Keith into a foul mood as he crawled through the air vents, followed by Lance. It was awkward and difficult going through the vents, and with no light Keith had to keep his tail resting on Lance's shoulder while directing him as they crawled. It was uncomfortable, especially when Keith could not stop his mind wandering back to the feeling of Lance's face pressed against his abdomen.

Lance was irritatingly good looking after all. He was less of a jerk now, and Keith supposed the initial reaction likely had more to do with whatever hurt the Galra had done to him and the other two Altean's on board, rather than anything Keith himself had done. He imagined it must be bad. Keith did not exactly _love_ Lance though, certainly not. They barely knew one another after all, but Lance was definitely attractive enough that Keith's stomach felt all fluttery and his insides felt hot when he thought too long about or focused too hard on Lance. 

“This one I think, if you were right about the turns,” Keith said, moving to a vent and shifting over so Lance could peer out of it. Keith looked too, between the grey slats and outside, sniffing the air again lightly. This scent was far more familiar to him. Sendak was _definitely_ on board this ship, and it seemed with Allura, Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk. Lance settled beside him, to Keith's left while peering out too, and Keith moved his left ear up and forward to listen, his right ear still trained on the vents. They were just outside the bridge apparently.

“-and you'll never get this ship moving without a crystal anyways. _You_ are as trapped as we are now,” Keith could hear Allura speaking, and Sendak's laughter at that. 

“You are a fool, Princess. I know more than you think, and I have men on board the ship besides myself. You've been invaded, and we brought our own crystal with us. We're going to the main fleet where I can personally hand Emperor Zarkon the lions of Voltron and their paladins. But I know one of you is missing too. I know it was a Galra who stole the red lion from my ship, and I'm certain I can think of a few appropriate punishments for whomever it was. I wonder if I should let you see what I do to them? Give you all a taste of how the Empire treats traitors and rebel's?” Sendak sounded delighted by the thought of punishing whomever it was who took Red, and Keith naturally went a bit stiff in fear. Lance cast him a look of concern beside him, though there was something odd in the expression too, it was softer than Keith was used to from Lance. 

Lance tapped Keith on the shoulder lightly then to draw his attention properly and pointed backwards. The air vents were the safest way to travel no doubt, and right now their team needed them. If all of them were captured then it was up to Keith and Lance to get everyone out of this mess. Keith nodded and moved awkwardly over Lance's lap to head back down a ways. They would need to find a spot they could safely talk after all, form some sort of plan. Keith was not good at this sort of thing though, planning was something he did not know how to do. Keith knew sort of how to bandage wounds and stop bleeding, and he knew how to calm a crying infant and care for children, but that was all he was taught by the empire. Oh, and he knew plenty about the Galran Gods and their ancient ways, but that was passed from every qylar parent to all their qylar children. Keith supposed the others received that kind of information wherever it was that they were taken when they turned a year old -or there abouts. 

“I think we're safe here,” Lance whispered, and both of Keith's ears swivelled back at the sound of his voice. It was pitch black here, so Lance probably could not see a damned thing, but Keith could. He moved his tail from Lance's shoulder and sat down, frowning in thought as he looked at Lance. 

“So what do we do? We have to get them away from Sendak, he's a monster. I'd know, I was on his ship for like a year,” Keith whispered. A year was the longest he had been anywhere since leaving the nursery ship, and he had planned to move soon. The red lion and Voltron had been a convenient route for him to take at the time, but they also offered him real freedom too. There was no way he would let Sendak march this ship or the lions into Zarkon's hands. Keith was not going back to the empire. 

“Okay, right. So we have to assume it's just us right now. We also have to assume that Allura is the only person conscious, we couldn't see anyone, and only Allura and Sendak were talking,” Lance whispered, closing his eyes as he talked. Keith wondered if that was to keep himself calm, or to think back and remember everything correctly. 

“Agreed. Just us. Allura may be the only person conscious. He won't kill the others though, not without orders from Zarkon, the commanders can make decisions like that if they need to, but with prisoners like this I don't think he would risk making the wrong decision. I hear that can get you killed pretty quick too. Honestly, I don't think he'll do much to me,” Keith was not too worried about Sendak in all honesty. A cruel man, but qylar were far too valuable to the empire, especially considering their significantly shorter life spans. 

“If you're sure. We could use you as the bait then? How many do you think there are?” Lance asked, the hushed whisper still easy to hear in the silence of the vents. Keith just hoped their voices did not carry outside to listening ears. 

“So far only smelled two. Sendak and the other one is probably his second, Haxus. Never saw much of him so I didn't recognize his scent right away,” Keith's lips were turned in a small frown, his tongue poking between his lips in concentration as he tried to think of a plan. His glare was focused at the metal wall in front of them both. Lance, he could see when he glanced at the Altean, wore a similar expression. 

“So two, possibly more, and they have a crystal. If they plug that in, we are screwed. The vents go on again,” Lance warned. 

“Shit, okay, how about I go out and charge in first, and you uh, lay down some cover fire?” Keith suggested and despite his apparent inability to see, Lance was able to shoot Keith a withering glare. 

“That is the _worst_ plan I have ever heard Keith. Okay, _here_ is the plan. You sneak back down and find the Haxi guy-”

“Hax _us_.”

“Whatever. I'll wait here while you find some way to take him out and think of something for Sandal-”

“Sendak.”

“ _Whatever._ We only gotta think of a way to handle him if it really is just two that way. Two on one is better than two on two, right?” 

“How am I supposed to beat Haxus? He is _definitely_ way stronger than me!” Keith did not understand the snort and roll of the eyes Lance gave him when he said that. 

“Right, okay, be modest then. You'll be fine, you're already pretty strong, you can hold your own pretty well against the gladiator right?” Was Lance trying to boost his confidence? Sure, Lance was slowly getting nicer to him, but he had not paid him any real compliments yet either. 

“Yeah, sure, but he's a Galran warrior. Only death stops them!” Keith tried to argue. He was nervous about this after all. How was a qylar supposed to beat a Galran warrior, trained from -well. Actually Keith had no idea how old military training began. All he knew was that only military ships had ever docked at his nursery ship and they took the children away at one year old. 

“And? You are too. Even if you weren't like, a soldier or whatever, you still got the same training, and like I said, I've seen you fight. If you don't win, I'd be pretty surprised,” Lance shook his head and Keith swallowed hard. 

“O-okay. Sure. I'll go beat Haxus and you work out how to get the others out, right?” Keith said, trying not to sound so terrified. He was though, he was completely terrified suddenly. Yes, he had knocked out one guard on the nursery ship, but they had been small still, probably Keith's age, and Keith had come up on them from behind. It had not exactly been a fair fight. 

“Good. I'm going back that way, and I'll meet you there. Hopefully I can figure out who all is awake other than Allura by eavesdropping. Our night vision is shit compared to yours but my hearing should be good enough,” Lance grinned before starting to crawl again, back to where they had been listening in.  
  
Keith sat where he was for a good few minutes, trying to collect himself. Okay. He could beat Lance. And the gladiator. Haxus was a qvir, but he was also not used to fighting qylar, so there was a real chance Haxus would either avoid a fight with Keith or seriously underestimate him. At worst, Keith could use who he belonged to in order to save his life, but he would really prefer not to. He did _not_ want the others knowing. 

Keith finally moved and began crawling back down. Three levels down and around towards the engine rooms, near where they had been before. Keith's tail curled against his left leg right now, holding his tension as he sniffed, moving where he smelled Haxus. 

“-in the engine room, yes sir. The Galra wasn't with them? I'm sure they'll turn up soon enough. I did spot them earlier, oddly short, smelled strange. Didn't get a good look at them. Yes sir, once I am done here I will look for him. Vrepit Sa.” Haxus was not paying as much attention as he should though. While he had his back turned, speaking to Sendak, Keith had carefully slid out of the vent. He used his tail to hold it open and slowly close it, activating his bayard. 

Not a moment too soon apparently either, the ship suddenly humming to life suddenly, but with an odd purple glow rather than blue. Keith felt a flutter of worry for Lance, but he had to assume Lance was alright still. The vents were more dangerous, but right now it should be okay to make it around the ship through them too. Keith tried to sneak up on Haxus too, the hum of the engine should help, but one of Haxus' ears flicked in Keith's direction and he turned around and scowled. 

“There you are, you traitor. I'll kill you myself and deliver your head to- wait. You're a just qylar? How were you even aboard our ship?” Haxus seemed to relax at that, though he still kept his gun close. Disarm, then immobilize. All he had to do was disarm then immobilize Haxus. Keith charged rather than answering, dodging the first blast from the gun and swinging his sword upwards. The blade on this was surprisingly sturdy and sharp, cutting through the barrel of the gun. 

“You little! I will make you regret thinking you could ever be anything more than what you are!” Haxus growled, tossing the useless weapon aside and grabbing for Keith. Keith whipped his tail out, wrapping it around Haxus' ankle and pulling hard, ignoring the twinge at the base of his tail caused by having been pulled earlier. 

Keith growled again, jumping, claws out and sword back, swinging down. Haxus rolled and pulled hard with his leg, causing a yelp to escaped Keith as his tail was pulled the second time that day. 

“Give up! Only death or defeat will stop a Galra warrior, and no qylar could hope to win a fight!” Haxus snarled, grabbing Keith's tail as he tried to release Haxus' leg. Keith yelped again and then went still, hoping to draw Haxus into a false sense of victory. Keith tried to suppress the revulsion he felt when Haxus pinned down his arms with one of his own before releasing Keith's tail. 

“There, now I've got you. Pretty little thing too, aren't you?” Keith did not like that tone. He tucked his tail against his leg before biting at the arm that pinned him down. Qylar had the sharpest teeth among the Galra, and the yell of pain Haxus gave as he released Keith again was more than a little bit satisfying. Keith dropped and kicked out with both legs sending Haxus stumbling backwards, towards the edge of the walkway. Keith did not pause to think either as he used his tail again to trip Haxus -who somehow did not see that one coming. Arms flailing, eye's wide, Haxus fell back and into the engine's main generator. Keith winced a little as he fell. That had to hurt... 

Keith lay on the floor for a moment before rolling over and moving to the panel to shut the engines down again. Not off, but definitely so it would not be jumping anywhere. Keith could not afford to go back, Haxus had been creepy enough about it. Keith slipped back inside the vents once he was able to collect himself, a strange giddy feeling inside him suddenly. He beat Haxus. Keith actually won the fight, Lance was right!

The grin that spread on his lips at that realization as he crawled through the vents was one that stayed in place all the way through the vents and he was able to find Lance easier with the air moving through the vents too now. His scent washed through the vents but Keith realized halfway up that Sendak could probably smell them both in the vents too. Shit, this was a little more complicated than Keith first thought. There was a second scent in the vents too though, Keith noticed and he frowned a little following that one instead. There was a figure, hunched over and peering out the slats in a vent and Keith was a little surprised by who it was. 

“Pidge?” He hissed softly, his yellow eyes fixed on her. She jumped, banging her head on the metal wall and turned to look at Keith, shining a light at him. Keith winced, flinching a little at the sudden brilliant light but Pidge sighed in relief and lowered her arm, turning the light off. 

“Keith, it's just you. Don't sneak up on me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Pidge slumped against the wall, shaking her head. 

“What's a- never mind. What are you doing here? We thought you were a prisoner with the others?” Keith asked, having to consciously stop his tail from whipping back and forth in his excitement, lest he start making noise and drawing attention. 

“I was going to go study the ship's specs for a while. See if I could discern anything from them. The power turned off, I though hiding might be a good plan, and here I am. Looks like you and Lance had the same idea?” She grinned at Keith, though Keith was not entirely sure he understood it. 

“Yeah, more or less. We were uh, stuck in the elevator. I took out Haxus, so it should be just Sendak maybe? He probably knows we're in the vents now, our scent carries,” Keith wished it was different, but there was not much point in stressing about it now. It was already done. And anyways, their scent blowing around was still an advantage in some ways. Sendak knew they were there, but he would not know their precise locations, so they could still move about the ship somewhat secretively. 

“Haxis was the scrawny lookin' one with dark purple on top right?” She asked for clarification. 

“Yeah. He's um, probably dead now, come to think of it. Anyways, we're three on one now, so let's find Lance and think of a plan,” Keith suggested, hoping they could figure this out. At worst the Galra crystal could help them get to a Balmera. Keith had no idea how close the nearest one was, but he had seen a couple of them now. 

“Yeah. Lead the way. With us three? We definitely can't lose~” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like Keith would bite a person who got weird with him. He will probably bite a lot of Galra. Also yes, Lance really was doing shit while Keith fought Haxus.


	9. Retaking the Castle of Lions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Keith off taking out Haxus, Lance has to figure out who's on the bridge with Sendak. With Keith and Katie's help, can they retake the Castle of Lions?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit, I went a long time not updating this one. Oops. I have been busy though and struggling to get in the writing groove, but I figured out something that works really well, namely a nice cafe where I have no internet to distract my ADHD ass. Anyways, enjoy this chapter, please comment if you like it! It doesn't have to be anything at all, you can leave a series of keyboard smashes and believe me, I will love it!

As Keith crawled away through the vents, Lance made his way carefully and slowly back to where the bridge was, and where the other members of the team were being held hostage. It was slow going and particularly difficult considering he could see absolutely nothing except where light filtered in through the vents, but he was able to find his way back eventually and peer out of the vent.

From this spot Lance could see Shiro, Allura, and Hunk, relatively clearly, and what looked like Coran's left foot, in addition to the tall Galra who told them to surrender or die earlier. Sendak, if he was remembering correctly. Shiro looked beaten up, and Lance felt some worry, since it seemed to him that humans were neither as strong nor as durable as Altean's were. Hunk was silent, but he looked to be alright physically. Allura was scowling and glaring coldly at Sendak, but she looked unharmed too. Coran, Lance could not be sure, and he could not see Katie at all from the vent. This was frustrating, but the information on where they were was good too, he could figure it out with Keith afterwards.

He listened to Sendak talking to the Haxi? Haxus! Guy that Keith had mentioned earlier, something about the engine systems, and while Lance knew the information may be useful too, he did not want to risk capture by staying where he was. Lance could see in low light, but in total blackness like this he could not. The vent squares let in just enough light that he could see where each one was, but Lance knew too that if he was not careful he might plummet to a bad injury or death.

Slow then. Lance moved painfully slowly through the vents, but there was a rumble and a hum suddenly through the metal which made him swallow. Oh no, oh, the ship was coming online... sure enough the lights flickered on as the air began to flow through the vents.   
  
Okay, not as bad as he thought, but still not great. If he fell in the wrong spot, the fans could kill him now too, and he did not like that thought in the least. Lance was able to crawl faster though through the vents until they all flickered out again. _Seriously Keith?!_ He thought as he huffed and sat where he was now. No way to safely travel, and he was away from the Bridge, so Lance supposed he could safely stay put here until Keith found him.

Okay, so the ship was not going to jump anywhere. Not that it should be able to, without Allura piloting the ship anyways. Only sacred Alteans of which Allura was the last could operate the teledov after all, but Lance suspected Keith did not know that. Made sense to kill the engines, considering Keith was unaware of this fact, but the vents still worked. The two systems were separated in Altean ships, so that they would not lose life support if the engines failed, but the crystal had powered both systems. No jumping meant no light either though.

“This way,” Lance's ear pricked at the whispered voice, but he smiled and sighed in relief. Someone whispering in the vents meant Keith, though he stiffened a little bit. Keith had to be whispering _to_ someone. And if everyone else was on the bridge then... 

“Lance!” Keith whispered as he came around the corner, followed by a very tiny body with Keith's tail resting on her shoulder, despite the flashlight on the paladin armour's wrist being active. Katie flicked her flashlight over Lance's face who grinned and winced at the light suddenly in his eyes.

“You're still okay too, huh?” Lance asked the human. Quite the team they made up. A Galra soldier, an Altean servant, and a human child. And those three, versus a Galra Warrior who would only be stopped by victory or death.

“Yeah! Okay, so Haxus is apparently probably dead, so it's just the other dude now right? Uh, Sendap?” Katie asked as Keith shook his head.

“ _Sendak_. Yes, Haxus is most likely dead, he may have accidentally tripped and fell into the engine generators,” Keith said, looking a little bit sheepish and Lance raised an eyebrow at that.

“Right. _Accidentally_. Anyways, from what I could tell, Hunk and Allura are both uninjured. I could not get a good look at Coran, but we should assume he's not in good shape, and Shiro is definitely badly hurt. Sendak is alone in there, he has a big purple looking crystal hooked up. Looks like they destroyed the old one, so we'll have to get one of those too, we can't keep the Galra one. Not compatible with the systems, also the lights are purple, and this is the _royal_ ship, so it has to have blue lighting.” Lance said, keeping his voice soft. 

“Right. Blue then, okay. So how do we take Sendak out? He can smell us now, he knows we're on the ship and that we're in the vents, but he won't know where exactly we are. It's kinda hard to pinpoint it, and he's too big to fit inside the vents, so he can't exactly get in with us to find us at least,” Keith said.

“Well, we need to lure him out of the bridge. If we can get him off the bridge, we can probably get the others free. If Hunk and Allura are okay, that means they can help us fight him too, and that increases our odds,” Katie said, and Lance could tell she was thinking very hard about what the best options were.

“Yes, but he is smart too. You don't rise to the position of commander by being foolish, _or_ by just being violent and ruthless. You have to be cunning too, we should not underestimate him. He might do it to us, but we are better not making the same mistake,” Keith said. Lance opened his mouth to speak but fell silent at the sound of footsteps outside. His eyesight was not as good as a Galra's, but his ears were. Katie on the other hand started to speak and Keith quickly covered her mouth with his hand, looking as worried as Lance felt. 

“I can smell you! Where are you three? I will find you, you can't hide from me forever!” Sendak snarled, and Lance felt Keith shrink beside him into a much smaller ball. The steps kept going though, and Lance noticed one of Keith's ears following the sound as the footfalls moved away.   
  
“Katie, go now, get Hunk and Allura, we can try and trap him in one of the other rooms!” Keith hissed.   
  
“The crystal chamber! Allura can get the shield around it up! We can keep him there if you draw him back there too!” Lance hissed, and Katie nodded, hurriedly scurrying through the vents again. Keith and Lance waited where they were for a moment, but they heard running footsteps going back and a faint beeping. Lance suspected Sendak had set some kind of trap to alert him of anyone trying to go in or out of the bridge area. Once the steps were passed though, Keith and Lance exchanged a look and a nod, before Keith pushed the vent out carefully. He wrapped his tail around the bars and then pushed with his arms, using the tail to set the vent down gently, off to one side before they slipped out of the vents and ran for the bridge too.

“Did you honestly think I would just _let_ you wander back on the bridge?” Sendak growled, and Lance swallowed with worry for Katie as he activated his bayard into the rifle it usually formed. Keith's sword came to life too, as Sendak turned to look at them. 

Like this, Lance could see the whole room. She had not yet freed Hunk, but Allura was, not that Sendak could see, as she kept her hands behind her back. Shiro was awake, but he did not look great. Coran was very much in need of a healing pod, unconscious, burned, and bleeding too, from what Lance could tell. Likely, he had taken the brunt of the explosion, which worried Lance all the more. And Sendak stood in the middle of the room, the glow of the purple Galra crystal behind him, with his mechanical arm stretched out and holding Katie in his massive hand. Keith was right though, this dude was way too big to fit inside those vents. 

“Ahh, and here we _all_ are. Including... so the princess did _not_ lie to me. You are no warrior. How did you even get on my ship? More importantly, how could you possibly steal the Red Lion, you're nothing but a-” Sendak's eyes widened as Keith growled and charged him, sword swinging and Lance sighed. Reckless little-! They would have to talk about that. All the same, the move threw Sendak off, and a shot from Lance forced him back a step too. The swing from Keith caused Sendak to throw Katie though, at Keith who caught her and flew backwards while Lance shot at Sendak. The arm came for him now, but Katie recovered faster and rolled beneath the light that kept Sendak's arm pieces together. Her bayard sliced threw it cleanly, the metal hand hitting the floor with a clunk and a slight screech as it stopped in front of Lance. 

“No!” Sendak roared as Katie darted to the side and Keith rolled back to his feet, charging again. Sendak ducked Keith's swing, but not the jolting hit from Katie, who pressed her bayard into the small of Sendak's back, a jolt of electricity being sent right up his spine. Keith leaned to the side, kicking hard to send Sendak stumbling backwards, tripping over Katie who moved under Sendak's feet as he fell backwards. She shot back up and shot the grappling hook into his stomach, another jolt of electricity arching through his body, rendering him very much unconscious

“Lance, get Coran to the healing pods. And put Sendak in a cryostasis pod for now, we can leave him there for now. I want to question him later,” Allura said, standing up as Keith moved to Hunk and Shiro so he could untie them.

“Yes Princess. Are you alright too?” Lance asked though as he went to Coran's side and gently lifted the older man in his arms. Coran was very pale, but he was still alive and that meant he would live.

“I am unharmed,” She said with a nod. “I am going to start us on a course for a Balmera, we need to use this crystal to get us there unfortunately, but I am certain that there will be a battleship class crystal we can use there,” She said. Lance nodded, dealing with Coran first.

It was a quick sprint to the healing pods, and Lance wasted no time setting Coran in it gently after changing him into the healing pod suite. That part was a little bit awkward, and it was hard when the other person was unconscious, but the pod tended to malfunction with other clothing, and it was considered inappropriate to be in a pod naked.

The pod began to scan and assess what needed to be done for Coran to make a full recovery, then it set to work, popping a timer up on the display in addition to Coran's vitals, injury displays, and what it was doing. Four broken ribs, massive internal bleeding, a punctured spleen... Coran was doing badly, but the pod estimated two days before full recovery. He should be healed by then.

Lance ran back to the bridge which was thankfully somewhat close by, to see Keith poking at Sendak with his foot, a strange expression on his face. Lance could not place exactly what emotion Keith was experiencing, but something about the look was off putting, like Keith was wishing bad things to happen to Sendak, or had hoped for worse then what Sendak was to get.   
  
“Keith? Come on, help me with getting him into a cryopod,” Lance said, walking up to him. Keith looked up at Lance, something on his face still, a mix of sadness, fear, anger. Lance had a hard time reading Keith though, those eyes gave things away differently than Altean or human eyes did. All the same, Keith nodded and helped Lance get Sendak up -he was too bulky for just Lance to carry- and together they dragged him down a different hall to the cryopod chamber.   
  
Lance pressed a few buttons to activate the pod, and they carefully dumped Sendak in, getting him into a more or less appropriate position before Lance set the pod to 'ACTIVE' and sighed. 

“Well, that's that I guess. Think he'll have any useful information for us?” Lance asked, watching Keith carefully. Keith was still a Galra, after all, but Lance was wondering a lot right now. There was a lot of information they were missing, clearly, and until they knew what it was, Lance would have to remain suspicious of Keith. Lance wanted to trust Keith, Keith seemed like he was being genuine, but there was something he was clearly hiding too, more apparent than ever thanks to Sendak's comments.

“Maybe. More than I could give you anyways, he was a commander. I'm not even a soldier,” Keith shrugged one shoulder and turned to walk back to the bridge.

“Keith. What did Sendak mean earlier? Before you cut him off? He said you weren't a warrior, and that you should not have been on his ship. And he said you are just a... and you cut him off. What was he going to say?” Lance only hoped that Keith would answer him honestly.

“I'm just... not a warrior. What does it matter anyways?” Keith asked, looking almost nervous, but the answer was not what Lance wanted to hear. Keith was just a what? What had Sendak been about to say? What was Keith hiding and why was he so terrified of returning to the empire?

“Okay. I guess it doesn't. I'm just curious. Besides, if it's like, an important thing, it might be good for the whole team to know, right?” Lance said, and he frowned when Keith's shoulders, ears, and tail all seemed to go especially stiff and tense.

“It isn't important. Let's go back to the bridge. Is Coran alright?” Keith asked, clearly trying to change the topics now, but Lance would let him. He could sense he was going to get no more information out of Keith on this subject right now, so there was little point in pursuing it.

“Coran will be okay, yeah. He just needs a couple of days in the pod, and he'll be as good as new,” Lance sighed, starting back towards the bridge now, with Keith beside him. Keith nodded and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at that.

“Good. Good. Also, what is a 'Balmera'?” Keith asked, and Lance grinned a little.

“Oh don't worry. You'll see. I think you'll like it.”

 


	10. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their boring road trip to the Balmera see's Coran into a healing pod, a game of charades, and some bonding time between Keith and Lance. When they finally do make it to the Balmera though, it seems they are in for a shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to edit this and publish it like two days ago, but neither of those things happened so I'm just going to go ahead and publish it so please forgive it if it's bad. 
> 
> If you like this story and other fics I am producing, consider donating to my Ko-Fi or checking out my commissions information! AO3 rules state I cannot link them here, so check out my tumblr page (seliphra) for more information!

“So we cant keep the crystal we've got, right?” Keith asked as they limped their way through space quietly. He sat in the Red paladin's chair, tail flicking back and forth along the ground in boredom. There was not a lot to do right now. The Balmera was too close to safely use the teledov to jump to it, and the ship was not terribly fast with an incompatible crystal. It would take a full three days, and with Coran healing in the pods there was even fewer people to do anything at all.

“No. It's not compatible with Altean systems. It's from the same Balmera yes, but this crystal, well, they've _done_ something to it. Corrupted it some how, I'm not sure what they did to it but it's just _wrong_ now!” Allura said, looking concerned. She kept her eyes on the purple crystal as she spoke, sitting on the ground beneath the old damaged one with the connectors still in place. 

“Quintessence maybe?” Keith asked, leaning back. The humans all raised an eyebrow and the two Alteans exchanged a look and then stared hard at Keith.

“What do you mean quintessence? No one's been able to harvest it,” Allura said, looking calm, but something in her tone made the fur on Keith's neck stand up a little.

“The Galra use it to power everything. I mean the ships are Balmeran Crystals, but the sentry droids, the smaller fighters, those are all quintessence powered. There are other uses for it too, apparently but I don't know what those are,” Keith said. He stood up and sighed softly.

“Maybe they did infuse it then. Twisted it with Druid magic and quintessence of a dark sort?” Allura wondered aloud. “Either way, it needs to be replaced as soon as we can get another crystal. The Castle of Lions is struggling to function properly. I'm getting a lot of odd readings, and it's a little bit troubling...”

“Well, we need to do something then in the mean time. I'm not risking the elevator again though,” Keith slumped a little and Lance huffed softly, sitting in his own seat too.

“I know! We could play charades!” Hunk said from his chair. Pidge perked up and Shiro groaned softly at the suggestion.

“What is that?” Allura asked, and her curiosity was matched by Lance and Keith's.

“It's a game we play on earth, you uh, act a thing out and everyone tries to guess what it is. Of course we can't really do earth specific or uh... you guys specific stuff, but we can figure something out, right?” Hunk asked.

“I mean, it can't _hurt_ right?” Lance asked with a thoughtful nod. 

“It _is_ something to do, but I'm going to pass. I'm going to run laps around the ship and explore it a bit,” Shiro said with a wry smile. Keith got the sense that he disliked this game, but Keith was keen on playing it. 

“Okay, so we think of a thing -something we must be sure everyone knows about- and then act out what it is for everyone to guess?” Keith asked.

“Yeah! I'll go first, so you guys can get a sense of how the game works. So the person acting out is not allowed to talk while it's their turn other than to say the people guessing are wrong, but only with a 'no'. Okay, so first you think of a thing -got it! Okay so then you hold up fingers for how many words it is, so-” Hunk held up two fingers. 

“Two words! First word!” Pidge said helpfully as Hunk changed from two fingers to one finger. Hunk then mimed eating.

“Eating? Food!” Lance shouted instantly, catching on quick. Hunk grinned and pointed to Lance before holding up two fingers.

“Second word? Er... slime?” Allura asked with a raised eyebrow as Hunk mimed something sticking to his hands.

“Food goo?” Keith asked cautiously and Hunk pointed to him.

“Yeah! Food Goo! Okay, so we all take turns and it just uh, passes the time!” Hunk said. It seemed fun enough though, so they decided to play but it got tricky thinking of things aliens would know too. All the same, it was a good time, and a good way to bond together when there was nothing else to do on the ship.

* * *

Day two on a four day trip to the Balmera, and Keith was on the training deck early in the morning. He had his bayard out, and he had been fighting droids for nearly twenty minutes when he heard the door open behind him. Not being able to sweat he was wearing loose fitting clothing to help with the heat. A black shirt and a pair of black pants, his tail sticking through the tail hole he had made in them.

“Oh. I didn't think anyone else would be up this early,” Lance said when they made eye contact. Keith frowned softly and watched him a moment, his tail twitching in response as he tried to decipher Lance's expression and tone. He looked almost sad to Keith, his voice more surprised then accusatory.

“I have difficulty sleeping sometimes,” Keith said simply. The truth was, he had nightmares. Every night he had them it seemed, featuring various possibilities both future and past. Mostly they involved what would happen if he were captured and the mere thought sent him into a panicked state, and so he forced himself not to.

“Me too,” Lance said softly, activating his bayard into a blue rifle. “Mind if I join you then? We can be sleepless together, right?”

“I would like that, actually,” Keith said with a small smile, relaxing just a little bit. It was still difficult to determine what Lance's motives were, but he was beginning to trust both Lance and Allura more than when he first arrived. Keith knew the Empire had hurt them. Keith knew it had taken something important away from them, what he still did not know. But it seemed they were beginning to trust that Keith truly was working with and for them instead.

They trained for hours until the door opened again, unaware of the time passing. They slashed, hacked, shot, and worked their way through a dozen and a half droids before the door did open and a voice shocked them both back to reality.

“Here you both are. We were getting worried when you didn't turn up for breakfast,” Shiro said, watching them both. Keith and Lance had both paused after killing the latest droid. 

“End training sequence. Sorry Shiro, guess we kinda lost track of time,” Lance said, turning a bit red in the cheeks.

“It's fine, but you two really should go and eat breakfast. Coran should be out of the healing pod in about five more uh... Varga's?” Shiro said the word uncertainly and Keith suspected Earth was not an interstellar traveller yet. They had not adopted the Intergalactic Time Measurements yet after all.

“Alright. Food sounds good actually,” Keith agreed as he put his bayard away, only now noticing that Lance was sweating. Sweat was something Keith was not used to seeing, so he did stare longer than he should have, but the way Lance looked when his skin glistened and his hair stuck to his forehead. Keith kept forgetting everything around Lance. It was such a strange feeling, he had never been attracted to anyone before. Then again he had only been surrounded by soldiers who would sooner make him their own and other qylar before.

“You okay dude? I mean I know I'm kind of a mess right now, but like, you don't have to stare,” Lance said, one eyebrow going up and Keith's ears moved down, the tuft on the end of his tail spiking out in every direction suddenly.

“Oh! N-no, I uh, nothing. I'm going! For food!” Keith said, spinning and walking out of the room now. He managed to catch Lance commenting on his strange behaviour and an amused chuckle from Shiro just as the door closed behind him. He marched up to the kitchens and grabbed a bowl, filling it to the brim without thinking and sitting down before shovelling it all in his mouth very quickly.

He was a lot hungrier lately, and the food goo here was so good, Keith had not paid nearly enough attention to how much he was eating. It did not matter here. He would be free to say no on this ship if it came to that. Lance joined him only a few minutes later and grabbed his food too, sitting across from Keith.

“Hey. Uh, thanks by the way. For letting me join you earlier. I appreciate it,” Lance said, stabbing at the food goo in his bowl while staring at the greenish gloop.

“Yeah, sure thing. Um, is it okay to ask why you couldn't sleep? I'm just curious is all,” Keith said with a nervous flick of his tail.

“Only if you answer one of my questions,” Lance said, shoving a spoonful of goo into his mouth.

“That would depend on the question you asked,” Keith knew better than to tell them certain things. He feared when they found out what his real position was meant to be, who owned him, but he was starting to trust that they might not hold such a thing against him.

“What was Sendak trying to say? He said you were just a... a what?” Lance asked and Keith felt his heart drop.

“I'll leave your thoughts and worries to you then,” Keith muttered, grabbing a second bowl of food goo. If there was something in his mouth, he could not talk after all. The same were true if he left, but the gurgling in his stomach demanded further attention.

“Keith. You know you can trust us right?” Lance said gently, but Keith stubbornly stuck the food in his mouth anyways. If they knew nothing about the galra genders then they would not know Keith was worthless to them beyond producing other little galra to do things for the Empire.

“Alright. Fine. I won't ask then,” Lance sighed and Keith glanced up nervously from his food. He relaxed only after a minute or so of silence before Lance spoke again.

“Want to uh, go see Coran when he wakes up?” Lance asked. It was still five Varga's away -or four and a half now really, but Keith nodded.

“Yes, I would," Keith was glad for the invite. It made him feel more like a member of the team.

* * *

“You should not overdo this Coran, you were nearly killed,” Allura said, her tone obviously worried for Coran as he dug around for tools.

“Nonsense Princess! I'm fine now! I've eaten, I'm all healed up, and I'm ready to fix up the castle! I'm the only one on board who knows how after all, and we need a lot of repairs before we reach the Balmera and after too!” Coran said as he placed the last item into the box.

“At least let us all help you Coran. You got blown up two days ago, you spent a full quintant in a healing pod, and anyways, I'm a mechanic too, I know how to fix the lions, so this shouldn't be a big leap, right?” Lance asked.

“I would not mind learning either, if that's alright?” Keith asked. He wanted to be useful, he was desperate to be able to do things. He had no real value to them after all, and though all three of them looked worried about it, Coran sighed.

“All right. You two can learn. I'm sure number five would like to learn too, so let's find Pidge,” Coran said. If there were going to be others who learned, then they might as well all learn. The more who knew how to fix the ship, the better it would be, in the off chance something happened to Coran.

Pidge, as predicted, was more than delighted to learn how the ships systems worked and followed them around too. She and Lance seemed to pick it up with ease, but Keith struggled somewhat with learning out to fix things. Simpler stuff was not that hard, but Keith could not manage to get anything past the really basic stuff.

Keith ate a little extra that day too, partly in frustration with himself, and partly because he was just so hungry lately. He felt tingly too, on edge, as though something were about to happen, and it made him terribly anxious.

* * *

 

“Good news Paladins! We should arrive today!In just a couple more Dobashes we will be at the Balmera, and have a new Crystal. Then we'll finally be able to work out how best to defeat the empire,” Allura said over breakfast. Defeating the empire... Keith still had mixed feelings about this.

Keith knew the empire was bad. He understood it had to be undone, that they had to make things right again. But Keith also wondered how the Galra might recover as a species. And what of the innocent? The qylar had never hurt anyone, they were as subjugated by the empire as anyone outside it was, with no control over their lives or bodies. Keith did not know how to even begin helping them, or bringing up their plight. What if everyone simply wanted to destroy them too? 

“Ugh, finally! I'm so bored of doing nothing!” Hunk whined. He had wound up helping Coran too with repairs once Keith gave up and went to the training deck.

“So what's the plan then? We fly in, pick one out, plug it in and just go?” Keith asked.

“Well, more or less, yes. We may need the Balmeran's help with getting the right crystal of course, but I don't foresee this as taking more than a Varga, tops,” Allura said with a small smile.

“Cool. Let us know when we're descending then, or there, or whatever to this Balmera-planet,” Pidge said with a yawn.

“Creature. The Balmera isn't a planet, it's a petrified, living creature. They are so massive that their bodies have an atmosphere and gravity. Their bodies produce the crystals naturally, and Altean's exchange some life force for a crystal, equal to what we are receiving.” Coran explained.

“Wait, it's an animal?” Keith asked, confused by the notion.

“Yes. Have you really never been to one Keith?” Allura asked, though something about the way she asked gave Keith the sense that she did not believe him.

“No, I haven't. I kinda hopped between ships a lot, and I worked with prisoners. Arus was the first planet I was on, we've been through this,” Keith reminded.

“Right. Well, the Balmera isn't a planet, but I suppose I understand what you mean. Ah, look! There it is!” Allura pointed to the view screen. Something was indeed growing larger on it, misty yellowish and enormous. It was certainly planet sized, but not really planet-shaped, and from what they could see there were no other ships in the area. Probably a good sign.

“Should we send down a lion or a pod or something?” Keith asked, staring transfixed at the screen.

“No, we'll land the castle I think. We only need one crystal, but it will be easier to change them out if we land to do it,” Allura said, pushing the ship down and into the atmosphere. It rocked the ship, and she had to use the standing launch straps to remain in position. The others buckled in too but as they cleared the cloud cover they all got a shock.

“What have they _done_ to it?!” Coran gasped loudly. All across the Balmera there were structures, tunnels, and craters. Not a single crystal that Keith could see, and he had a feeling they were in for a fight. 

“They're _mining_ it! Coran, they're killing it !” Allura said, looking distraught.   
  
“Attention unidentified vessel! State your landing clearance and purpose,” An announcement came over their systems and Keith's fur bristled along his neck and tail. Allura scowled and held the course steady before reversing at full power to out maneuver the other ship. 

“Launch the lions! Now! We're in for a fight. Coran, raise particle barrier! I need to land the ship, but we also need to know what's happening here. I'm scanning the planet now!” Allura said, as Keith unbuckled along with the other paladins. They needed to get to their lions fast, but Keith did not have much hope for this. He felt all hot, itching for a fight suddenly, and yet terrified that one was upon him.

 


	11. The Fight for the Balmera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team must fight to both get a crystal and save the Balmerans from the Galra Empire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing very well! As always, if you like this chapter please leave a comment, even if it's just 'I like this!' or 'asdfghjkl!', I promise I read and love EVERY comment I get from you all! (I even recognize a few people now as they comment so often, and I genuinely look forward to seeing them!) 
> 
> Please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or commissioning me for fic, both of these are available from my tumblr seliphra! Thank you!

Lance twisted his lion towards the Balmera once they had launched into open space, and angled Blue towards the Galra cruiser that demanded their entry codes. Keith fired a laser blast from Red at the ship, throttling ahead of the pack and Lance huffed softly to himself. Keith was impatient, hot-headed, and so terribly cute in every conceivable way, and it was so frustrating.

“Keith, hold back, we -nevermind,” Shiro was trying to maintain order, but the ship was currently exploding where Keith hit it, and sinking towards the surface of the Balmera.

“Uh, guys. The Balmera is alive, we can't let the ship hit it, it will hurt the Balmera,” Lance said, moving Blue under the Galra ship and reversing the thrusters to hold the thing up. Hunk was under their soon to help him, and Shiro too, but Keith was already rocketing away to keep up with the castle, spinning and twirling through the sky to attack the fighters now launching from the surface of the planet.

“Keith, come back here!” Shiro called, but there was apparently a problem with listening from Keith. Or Keith turned off his comm system, which would not surprise Lance. Lance questioned why Keith was so adamant to destroy everything Galra related though. Was he trying to prove himself? Was he that against the empire? It was suspicious to Allura, Lance knew that. They lowered the ship down as gently as they could anyways before moving after Keith.

“Guys, we need to think of a better plan then this if we're going to make it through in one piece. Keith, come back, we should be forming Voltron to protect the castle. We can't do that without you,” Shiro called.

“We should be separate. We can take out more fighters like this!” Keith argued, but he did finally hold position, the red lion turning to look at the others. _So he_ _ **can**_ _hear us_ , Lance thought to himself, scowling at his view screen. 

“Keith, if something bigger comes, we need to be ready for it,” Shiro said again, “come back here, we're forming Voltron. Keith made an aggravated sound, but he did move towards the other for all the same. Lance was reluctant though now. Keith was right, in some regard after all. They could take out more fighters individually than formed as Voltron.

“Listen up Paladin's! We need to find a Battleship Class crystal. As the Galra have mined the Balmera so badly, we may have to go deep within the Balmera to get it. I need you all to split up, but one of you must remain here to defend the castle.” Allura said now, only just opening her communication to the lions from the ship.

“Roger that Princess. I'll stick with you, Hunk, you go down there, Pidge, you head into that one, Keith and Lance, I want you both to go to the far side of the castle and down the shaft they have there, it's the largest one so you're both going to be needed for it,” Shiro called and Lance could almost feel Keith's smugness over the lion's links.

“Alright, let's go Keith,” Lance said, pushing his lion towards the largest of the visible shafts while Hunk and Pidge called their acknowledgements too. Keith matched Lance's speed towards the shaft while Shiro positioned the Black Lion near the castle for now. The shafts were very deep, plunging far into the Balmera, and Lance worried for this Balmera's life with what had been done to it. It was exceedingly rare for a Balmera to die, from what Lance understood of them, but if this one survived, he would be honestly surprised. None of them contained enough energy to possibly save it after all.

“Princess, how's this Balmera doing?” Lance asked over the coms, hoping it looked worse than it was. If it could be saved, that would be ideal.

“Not good I'm afraid. I've only just landed, but my scans are showing that it's not going to survive much longer either. I'm afraid it may already be too late, but I think we have enough time to get the Crystal at least. There should be Balmeran's here too, but if they still are, I can't find them,” Allura said.

“Got it. We're hitting the bottom of the shaft now, and the tunnels are too small for the lions. We're going to have to go in on foot, so we're going to lose communication,” Lance said as the Red lion landed just ahead of him. Lance gently set his down too, beside it, and left the cockpit, meeting Keith out there. He looked agitated, his tail flicking in every direction, though Lance could not see what his ears were doing. Probably they were cramped under his helmet, the helmets were not exactly designed for people with larger ears like Keith had. Tails were easier to accommodate in many ways.

“Which way?” Keith asked, already pulling his bayard out, and Lance rolled his eyes, though he did the same. The tunnels were no doubt crawling with sentry bots, and they had to keep themselves safe after all.

“That one, I got a good feeling about it,” Lance said, heading down one of the tunnels and Keith followed behind him. Hopefully at least one of them was successful. The tunnels shook lightly though and Lance grimaced in worry. The Balmera was definitely in poor shape, and he worried about it.

“What is that?” Keith asked, looking startled when they heard the Balmera grumble too, a high whine echoing all around them.

“The Balmera. It's probably not going to last too much longer. Poor thing is probably in a lot of pain right now,” Lance said, gently touching the wall of the tunnel they were inside of.

“Right. You mentioned that earlier right? Can we help it? Make it better somehow?” Keith asked.

“Maybe. Not sure. Alteans used to give energy in exchange for crystals. An equal exchange, and it kept the Balmera strong. A balance was found. But with what the empire did here, turning it into a mining colony? They've taken much and given nothing in return,” Lance said softly. They continued down the tunnel, but it was devoid of any signs of life.

They were down there for near twenty minutes until Lance heard Hunk's voice in the tunnels and looked at Keith who nodded. Hunk was talking to someone anyways, so maybe he had found something? Either that or he was in trouble, so really they should check it out. Lance raised his bayard blaster as they approached, though he lowered it when he saw Hunk with a huge Balmeran female.

“Hunk!” Lance called and Hunk peered around the woman at him and waved.

“Lance! Keith! Hey guys! Shay, these are two of the other Paladin's I was telling you about! They're here to help too!” Hunk said and the Balmeran turned. She smiled at tem both until she _really_ noticed Keith and then backed up.

“No! You did not say you were helping the Galra!” She said, her tone and expression full of fear. Keith visibly flinched at that and Lance frowned softly. Oh. Was that how they reacted to Keith at first too? No, they were even worse then Shay's reaction. Lance did not blame her though. He knew Keith sent a less than ideal message to others.

“Shay was it? Look, we know. We were pretty suspicious of Keith at first too, but he really isn't part of the Empire. He's fighting really hard to put an end to the Empire's reign, and he's a traitor to them now. You don't have to trust him, but you can trust us okay? I'm an Altean. Our people used to have an alliance of sorts with yours, but the Empire destroyed our home world too. If Keith was not a good Galra, then the Red Lion would never have chosen him, and we wouldn't trust him now either,” Lance said, trying to be as gentle as he could with her. Shay still looked suspicious, but she nodded slowly, accepting what Lance said.

“Alright. I will help you, but I am not sure why a Galra would wish to leave the empire. This way skylings, I will show you the crystal, though it is protected. Or was. It would appear there is an attack happening,” Shay said. Lance looked back to Keith as Shay turned to lead them through the tunnels and he was a little surprised by the expression Keith wore. He looked like he had just been punched in the gut by Lance, though Lance could not begin to imagine why. Keith managed to pull himself forward though, following after Lance, Hunk, and Shay to where the crystal was.

“Shay was telling me that her people have been working in the tunnels as long as anyone can remember. Guys, we have to do something for them, we can't just leave them like this,” Hunk said as they walked.

“I agree,” Keith said, though his voice was surprisingly quiet and soft. Lance was suddenly a little worried for Keith, the way he was acting was not like him.

“Yeah. The Balmera is in bad shape anyways, we should try to evacuate the planet if we can,” Lance said. He would float it to the Princess when they were able to communicate with her again on the lions. She should not take any issue with saving the people of the planet after all, Lance knew.

“Is there enough room on the Castle for everyone?” Hunk asked, and Lance nodded once.

“Yeah, should be anyways. And there are other Balmera, we can try to find one and hopefully the Balmeran's there will be able to help too. I have a feeling that Princess Allura might try to save the Balmera though. If she does, that's obviously ideal, but I'm not sure anyone can perform the rejuvenation ritual now,” Lance did not like it, but it was just reality.

“What is the rejuvenation ritual?” Shay asked, curious as they walked. The tunnels rumbled again, another groan from the Balmera echoing all around them. Lance was a little startled when Keith latched on to him, looking frightened and watching the ceiling as a few pieces crumbled around them.

“Alteans used the ritual to give our energy back to the Balmera, in exchange for the crystals we took from it. That way, the Balmera received the energy it was losing in giving up the crystal, so we had an equal exchange and the Balmera would stay healthy and in good shape. The Empire hasn't been doing that, obviously, which is why the Balmera won't survive much longer. If they keep stealing the crystals and never give back, the Balmera will collapse in on itself and simply die,” Lance said.

“Balmera cannot die! It is our home! We are the ones who are meant to care for it!” Shay said, pausing and looking alarmed. She shot a glare at Keith, as though the Balmera's death was single handedly his doing.

“I know, I know! So we're going to try and save it. First we need to get rid of the Galra presence on it, then we can hopefully save Balmera with a few Rejuvenation Ceremonies. It could take a while, but if we had enough time it might be doable,” Lance said. Shay still looked uncertain, but she seemed to accept what Lance was saying too.

It was a fast enough journey to the crystal they needed, and Lance shot the two sentries guarding it with perfectly aimed shots to the heads. Then he ran up to the crystal, placing one hand on it gently. The place he touched glowed as he offered the Balmera all the energy he could. A heavy groan rumbled inside the tunnels again, but this one sounded less pained somehow, and the crystal moved up, popping out and falling towards Lance. Lance struggled under the weight of it, but Shay and Hunk helped him hold it.

“We should take it to the Yellow lion, right? It's the biggest, so it will have the easiest time carrying and protecting the crystal, right?” Keith asked.

“Yeah, I'm over that way,” Hunk said, pointing a little awkwardly down a different tunnel with a nod of his head and Keith turned and began to walk that way. He kept his sword out, keeping the other three safe as they made it through. They ran into two patrols, but Keith was very fast, and Lance was admittedly a little impressed with how good Keith was at fighting.

Hunk told Shay to gather as many Balmerans as she could, and to head for the surface just in case. She ran off as Keith and Lance ran for their lions too, and with any luck they could find Pidge, wherever she was down here. 

 

* * *

 

 

Defending the Castle was proving difficult. More difficult then Lance had expected at any rate, though they had no other choice. Allura agreed, the Balmera should be evacuated, but she intended to try and save it, as Lance suspected she would.

Right now, the Balmeran's were being rushed to the ship from the larger mine shaft by Coran and Allura, while the lions all moved above, protecting the Balmerans and the Castle of Lions.

“This is impossible! There are too many of them!” Lance shouted finally, near ready to give up. How could they possibly win this fight? Surely a call was made by now, and no doubt a fleet was on the way, and they may have no option but to flee when it did.

“We have to keep trying! Don't give up team! Allura, how much longer until all the Balmeran's are on board?” Shiro asked.

“We need five more dobash's! We've got them all here or on board now, but it's not easy with those things _shooting_ at us!” Allura said.

“Yeah, well, they're shooting at us too, and we're not in any better shape up here,” Keith grumbled as another groan came from the Balmera and a sink hole appeared. Lance watched in horror as it simple caved down and crumbled into itself.

“Uh, guys? I don't know if we _have_ five more dobash's. Part of it just collapsed, I think it's dying now,” Lance said. He bit his lower lip before aiming for the ground now. They had to get the last of the Balmerans on _something_ or they wouldn't make it.

“Lance, where are you going?” Pidge called.

“I think we're out of time, we have to get the Balmeran's not on the ship onto our lions instead!” He called as he landed near where they were hiding and waiting to dart to the castle. Lance lowered the Blue lion down and opened her mouth to let them in but it shook again and this time parts of the shaft were collapsing in on itself. Lance watched as four were dropped into the empty space of the shaft, unable to react as they hit the beams below them.

“Lance is right, let's go. Get the last of them onto the lions, but we need to go _now,_ ” Keith said as the Red lion came into view. Lance swallowed and let as many as he could carry on to his lion as the Red lion opened it's mouth to do the same, the others appearing too. Another tremor and they lost ten others before they could get everyone into the lions and the last that could make it to the ship did. Allura and Coran had to race to the control room no doubt as they landed the lions in their individual bays, the castle ship powering up and beginning launch sequences.

No sooner had the castle ship left the Balmera, than another tremor shook through it, the place their ship had been crumbling and falling. A last, low, howl echoed from the Balmera as it died, it's whole body greying and falling in on itself as it did.

 


	12. Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Balmeran's on board has left Keith feeling lonelier than ever, and Lance tries to cheer him up with a trip to the training deck, but it quickly turns into a very different type of stress relief for both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey whats up! I've been too sick to write this past week, or working, and then of course s4 came out and I had to watch it (dat season tho) but I was finally able to get this chapter done! Please leave a comment if you like it, comments are how I know people are still reading this (even if it's just a keyboard smash or 'I like this', it really does mean the world to me, and I read and cherish every comment I get!) 
> 
> A reminder too though... Lance already knows about Keith's gender, as do Allura and Coran, it was mentioned in chapter 3 (I think? Might be 5). They do not know how the empire has changed though, or that qylar are now subjugated and treated like baby-making machines.
> 
> Please check out my tumblr @seliphra and please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or commissioning me! (I missed a few shifts due to being too sick to work, so money is very tight right now!)

Keith was alone at last, in the observation deck. He stuck to a spot by the windows, his legs folded up underneath him, knees and toes pressed against the glass, as he watched the stars fly by. It was hard to get alone time these past two weeks, with the Balmeran's on board, and so many of them. They were not very nice to Keith either, all of them cautious at best, and aggressive towards him at the worst. Keith could understand it, the Galra had mined their home until it died, after all, had enslaved them, and treated them horrifically.

Keith understood now why the Altean's had mistrusted him too now, and probably still did. Lance saying the Galra had destroyed Altea was a shock, but it had gotten them the crystal and off the Balmera in time and Keith suspected Lance thought the destruction of their home was common knowledge in the empire.

Keith had tried so hard to be accepted by the Balmeran's though. The little ones, the ones too young to understand any of this liked him well enough, and Keith did enjoy playing with them too, but every time their parents came, he was chased away and warned never to get near again. He had given up after two days.

“Here you are,” Lance called, and Keith jumped a little, a thump from his knees sounding through the now otherwise empty room. Keith had not budged and eventually the Balmera who had been in here with him had opted to move to the other observation room.

“Lance. Hello. Sorry, I am er, I was just thinking,” Keith said, smiling at Lance. Thinking about everything, including Lance. Mostly Lance. The past few days especially he could not get Lance out of his head in every imaginable way, though Keith was not sure why.

“Yeah. I guess it's hard for you with the Balmeran's on board too huh? They don't trust you yet, and all. They're not being too bad about things to you are they? Allura told them to be nice to you, but if they aren't we'll scold 'em for you~,” Lance grinned and sat beside Keith who smiled. Lance smelled _so_ good right now too. 

“No. No, they mostly just stop talking when I enter a room, leave the room, and ignore me entirely or else mutter about me under their breath. It's fine, really, I understand it. The people who hurt them looked like me,” Keith shrugged.

“Well. Taller mostly, and lacking a tail, but yeah,” Lance grinned and Keith smiled too. “Hey, how come there are no other qylar in the military anyways? Or are they mostly stationed like, with the core fleet?” Lance's question through Keith off enough that he was not sure how to answer. Lance knew? Did the others? But then of course, a lot might change over ten thousand years, right?

“I uh. I don't know.” Keith stammered out, thrown off enough to not think to tell the truth of the matter. They were not permitted in the military. They were no good in the military, should Lance not already know that?

“Oh. Well whatever. Come on, let's go train. I already checked, there's no one in there, so it can be just us. Get your mind off all of it for a while anyways, right?” Lance said and Keith nodded and smiled weakly. Training would be nice, but he noticed Altean's sweat when they were active, and that sweat increased their scent. Humans did it too, it was so strange to Keith! He had asked a lot of questions, which the smallest human had been happy to answer for him.

The trip down was quick, but awkward with a couple of Balmeran's sharing the space. They were all being taught how to do different things too, based on what they wanted to learn or already had a skill set for. Allura offered to find them a planet they could live on, or another Balmera even, but many said they wished to stay on board and help fight the Galra Empire. Keith wouldn't mind that so much if they would be a little kinder to him.

Keith stuck beside Lance until they were in the training room, glad he had worn looser clothing today. The ship was a little warm for his liking, especially of late, as the Balmeran's liked a warmer temperature apparently, but the training room was still kept nice and cool, much to Keith's relief. They got out their bayards, and Lance opted for a sword like Keith so they could spar against each other this time. 

“Ready?” Lance asked, smirking at Keith, and Keith felt his heart flutter and heat flash inside his belly. The past three days especially, any time Lance got too close that happened, and he was not entirely sure what it meant. Everything had been off lately, since before the Balmera, but for now he tried to shake it from his head and focused on kicking Lance's ass all over the training deck. 

The first time their bayards clashed, Keith held his ground. Keith had been growing stronger since he came here, better at fighting the more he trained, and Keith trained more than any of the other paladins. Lance finally pushed him back, his expression one of concentration, but Keith lunged again, sword swinging down. 

Lance brought his bayard up again on time though, looking just a little alarmed. Keith's tail swung around, but Lance actually paid attention to what Keith's tail did and pushed again, using strength Keith did not have. Altean's were still stronger than Galra. Stronger than qylar at any rate and Keith huffed softly as he slid back. Keith's primary strategy in a fight was not a good one though. Charge, swing, and trip them up with his tail. 

Lance blocked his every move, though Keith had energy to spare these past few days, and he was able to keep up his pace much longer than Lance could. Lance seemed to clue in to that too though, and began to switch from defence to the offensive, springing a flurry of swings that had Keith on his heels as he ducked, blocked, and turned around Lance. Lance was the first of them to land an actual blow, his elbow striking Keith's side as Keith tried to duck below Lance's sword. 

Keith was quick to get Lance back though, Lance had taken a half step towards Keith when he struck, and Keith's tail wrapped around Lance's ankle tripping him over.  _Now's my chance!_ Keith thought, jumping up as he pulled Lance's leg out from under him. Lance's expression turned to one of shock and surprise as Keith landed on his knees, straddling Lance's abdomen, sword edge beside Lance's throat. 

Both of them were panting for breath, though Keith admittedly more so, and Lance was sweating. Keith was suddenly hyper aware of Lance as he swallowed and lowered his sword, Lance laughing suddenly. Keith could feel everything inside him flutter again, his whole body feeling hot. Maybe it was just the sparring practice, but Keith suspected it was just Lance. 

“That was a good fight~” Lance said, shifting on to his elbows, and Keith scooted back, but it only made the heat he felt flush again, new and frustrating as hell. 

“Y-yeah. So uh, we should do it again right?” Keith asked, though he suddenly lacked all the strength he had only a moment ago. 

“You okay Keith? You look a little uh. Off. Also you're still sitting on me still and um,” Lance's cheeks flushed red but Keith could feel the source of Lance's embarrassment too. He was kind of sitting on it after all, and it was a final flash of hungry heat caused by Lance's growing erection that pitched Keith forward, and he pressed his lips to Lance's. 

The energy and strength surged back through his whole body when their lips met, and Keith's need grew so greatly he could not contain it any more. Faintly, in the back of his mind somewhere, he wondered if this was his heat, but when he felt Lance's hands on him, pulling him closer the thought fluttered away with all the rest of them and his hips shifted against Lance's, a soft sound escaping Keith's throat as a wave of pleasure burned up his spine. 

Keith's hands grappled for Lance's shirt, trying to pull it off him, but Lance's hands found Keith's to stop him. Keith pulled away to protest, a pout on his his lips, but Lance's grin told him they probably were not stopping. 

“We should move. Not here,” Lance murmured softly to him, kissing him again, but for all the strength Keith had in his arms, there was none to be found in his legs, wobbly as they were. Lance seemed more amused than anything though, helping Keith up, and once they had collected their bayards, Lance took Keith's hand and led him to the elevator without another word. 

Keith fought very hard to control himself in the elevator, and his body felt all the hotter for the taste of pleasure it had just gotten from Lance. It was a relief when the doors opened and Keith stepped off, pulling hard on Lance who grinned as Keith led them both to his room. The Balmeran's were mostly staying in the old servants quarters, and Keith was not keen on being glared at or having everyone on the ship know what they were about to do. 

The other paladins were off elsewhere right now, doing what, Keith could not bring himself to care. Lance was all that mattered right now, and sating the desire Keith had for him. The moment the door was closed behind Lance, Keith had his back against the door, Lance pressing their lips together again, though this time he felt Lance's tongue slide between his lips too. Keith's arms locked around Lance's neck like a vice as Lance's hands slipped underneath Keith's shirt, sending another shiver through Keith's body. 

Lance's hands drifted up a little, before drifting down for Keith's pants instead, one hand moving behind to press two fingers right at the base of Keith's tail and rub small circles in the fur there. Keith felt another moan escape him at that, and Lance grinned, as breathless as Keith was now. 

“I want you,” Lance murmured, pulling Keith away from the door now and towards the bed. Ah, Keith's legs were as wobbly as food goo again, but Lance was right there, guiding him towards the bed. Keith was more than a little grateful to be on the bed too, and he could feel moisture between his legs now too. 

The full extent of what Keith knew, concerning what they were about to do, was limited. His mother taught him what she could, to prepare him for what was to come, but it was a limited experience, and Keith knew full well that she had never had an encounter she wanted. Not like this. Keith wanted this so desperately his whole being ached for it. 

Lance moved on the bed, hands on Keith's hips as he pulled down Keith's pants and the underwear, minding Keith's tail as he did so. Keith's ears moved down a little, embarrassed, but Lance seemed to like what he saw too, leaning down to kiss Keith's belly gently as he moved Keith's legs apart, one finger running along the folds and picking up some of the moisture that was starting to form before gently rubbing just above Keith's entrance at a spot Keith had no idea could feel so good. It built slow, soft whining moans as the pleasure tingled and radiated out from the spot Lance was rubbing gentle circles with his thumb, and into Keith's abdomen and legs. It made Keith's whole body heat up and ache with desire, hands clutching at the sheets beneath him before Lance dipped his fingers down, slipping two of them inside Keith with ease. 

“L-Lance~! Hmmn~! I-I want more, I-I want-” Keith stared almost pointedly at the bulge in Lance's pants which made him grin. Lance stayed where he was though, and Keith could feel Lance's fingers moving suddenly inside of him. In and out, curling inside him gently and causing his breath to catch as Lance unbuttoned his own pants. Keith felt the absence of Lance's fingers sharply too when he withdrew them, and Lance wiped his fingers on his own shirt before stripping it off and tossing it to one side. 

Lance moved up between Keith's legs, kissing Keith's neck and then his lips again, his erection pressed right up against the spot that his thumb had elicited so much pleasure from just a moment ago. Keith's arms wrapped around Lance's bare back as Lance's left hand moved between them, and when Keith glanced down he shivered lightly with anticipation. Lance used his hand to guide his erection to the right spot, and the burning in Keith felt worse than ever as the head of Lance's erection slipped inside of Keith with ease and Lance pulled his arm back, resting that hand on Keith's right hip before Lance pressed his own hips down and forwards. 

Keith moaned again, writhing a little as his tail wrapped around Lance's thigh. Lance moved his hips slowly, and Keith trembled beneath him, his right hand in Lance's short hair, his left resting on Lance's right arm. Their lips found each other again as Lance began to move his hips faster, and Keith could feel the pleasure pooling in his belly, tingling still in his legs and toes as Lance moved inside him. It grew stronger and stronger, building to a peak too quickly and painfully slowly all at once before Keith's orgasm hit him like a wave. 

The whole thing coursed through his body, rippling inside him as his moans grew louder than ever, and he could feel the way his passage gripped and trembled around Lance who still moved inside of him, faster than before. Lance's movements grew jerky though while Keith was still coming, a low moan leaving him as he slowed his movements and then grew still inside of Keith. 

The hunger for Lance was definitely better now, but Keith knew he had not had nearly enough yet. He felt remarkably sticky though now, between his legs, something he became acutely aware of as Lance pulled out of him after a few more lazy kisses. Lance's erection was gone, did that mean no more for the whole day? Keith was uncertain about how Lance's anatomy worked, it was so different from his own.

“Uh. You okay Keith?” Lance asked softly, looking concerned suddenly and Keith realized he must have been pouting. 

“Y-yes. Um... how long until it can get hard again?” Keith asked, probably a bit too bluntly, but Lance grinned and laughed lightly before kissing Keith once again. 

“Give me like ten minutes, and we can do that again,” He promised, and Keith felt some relief at that, nodding. He could wait ten minutes for more of _that_ after all. Lance moved to the side, laying down beside Keith, one hand resting gently on Keith's hip, rubbing lightly up under Keith's shirt and down again as Keith rolled to face Lance, his tail finally releasing Lance's thigh. Even his tail felt like it was made of food goo now though, so a break was likely in order. Oh what would his master say if he knew Keith had just done this!

 


	13. Misunderstandings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance learns something about Keith he was not sure he wanted to know, but when a fight results in a Galra ship escaping because of Keith's actions, can Lance hold his own anger in check? And is Keith really on their side?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing angry characters makes my head hurt. Here's the new chapter finally though! I went on a trip and my abusive mother sucked out every penny I owned including a meager savings, so I would super appreciate it if anyone is willing to throw a few bucks at my Ko-Fi to help me recover a little bit from it. Alternatively consider becoming a patron or commissioning me? My url is seliphra!

It was not love. They were hungry, certainly, and Lance had been more than willing to devour Keith late into the night. Two, three, he lost track of how many times after that, but Keith had writhed underneath him for hours, their bouts of hunger and need broken up by a few minutes rest between, where Lance held him close and they kissed and explored each others bodies more calmly.

Lance was lonely, and Keith seemed to be in a similar state, in Lance's mind. That was all this was, a need to feel close to someone, to anyone who would have them. And why not each other? Their loneliness was of different makes, Lance supposed Keith could feel less alone if he went back to the empire, though Keith claimed that was impossible. Lance could never regain what he had lost. He was beginning to trust Keith though. Keith so far had shown no reason to doubt after all.

Lance's eyes grazed over Keith's sleeping form beside him again, once finger gently tracing Keith's hip. Keith was curled up, facing Lance, his tail draped over his right leg, back to the wall of his room. Lance had lost his pants some time during the night, but Keith kept the shirt, not letting Lance remove it, though he had tried a couple of times. The first his own desire to see all of Keith's body, the others because it was getting in the way of what he wanted to do to Keith.

Lance wondered too if Keith had been with anyone before now too. He doubted it, given the reactions he got that first time, the look of awe that he could feel so good from just the gentle touches Lance had given to his clitoris and the way he had been so impatient for their second round. It had been pretty cute and Lance felt himself smile just a little bit. It was not love, but it was making him feel just a little bit better in some ways. Allura might not approve of this, but Keith was cute and he was willing, and he might not understand losing his world and all he loved, but he understood loneliness and that was enough right now for Lance too.

Lance's eyes were drawn to the collar of the shirt, the way it draped around Keith's neck and small form. Keith was not a big person, not like most of the Galra, but if Lance was recalling correctly, that was normal for qylar anyways. The shirts he wore were far too baggy though, and Lance suspected it was intentional on Keith's part, though it made him look much smaller and thinner than he really was. The light was dimmer, but not off, so Lance could still see decently well, and one spot caught his attention now, hidden partially by the shirt Keith wore.

The fur there was matted strangely, or burnt off, and curiosity got the best of Lance, his fingers moving from Keith's hip to gently pull the collar down and get a better look. A brand mark? Galra did do this, and if memory served him, it was done as a display of loyalty to a commander or lord or emperor. Secret forces kind of thing, which was a concern. The two circles one atop the other, and a crescent moon, open to the outside on the left and right. Lance froze, his mouth going very dry as he moved his finger.

Keith claimed he could not go back, and maybe that was true, but maybe... Allura would need to know about this, and Lance did not think it could wait. He moved slowly, so as not to wake Keith, finding his boxers, pants, and shirt, dressing quickly and quietly. A shower could wait, Allura would know what they had done now anyways.

Lance swallowed his own feelings for now, heading through the quieter castle, everyone asleep now, or mostly. A few Balmeran's were still awake, since there were enough on board the ship now to have a night crew again. They were essentially just making sure no Galra battle cruisers could sneak up on them while the paladins and Allura all slept.

Lance found himself at the princess's door soon enough, and faster than he would have liked to find himself. Lance hesitated on knocking at the door. He knew he should, really. Allura told him to come to her if Lance held a single doubt about where Keith's loyalties lay, and this was a large doubt, but perhaps he should talk to Keith about it first? Surely there was another explanation, but Lance knew too that if Keith really were a spy, he would simply lie about what the mark meant. Lance's decision was made for him when the door opened and Allura stood there, eye's widening in a moment of surprise to find Lance outside her door.

“Lance? Is everything alright?” She asked, and Lance swallowed, nodding his head twice before shaking it. No, things were not alright, and no, he could not hide this. Allura deserved to know the chances, deserved to decide what they did with this information. She was Lance's princess after all, his leader, and one of the last Altean's alive, just as Lance was.

“I um. Something has happened and-and I think you should know about it,” Lance managed to say after a moment. He could not lie to his princess. He could not hide this from her.

“Er, yes, what is it then?” She asked, looking Lance up and down. His hair stuck out in a couple of spots, he smelled kind of bad after training and then fucking Keith half the night, and he definitely had a few marks on his neck from that too. Embarrassment welled up inside him, his cheeks burning red and his marks glowing just a little bit. What if it was Keith's job to seduce someone on board too? And Lance had walked right into the trap, all too eager for someone to make him feel even a little bit like himself again?

“I have reason to suspect that Keith _may_ still be working for the empire. I believe he may be an agent in the Secret Service, either currently or before he left the empire,” Lance said. Allura's eyes grew wide in concern at that before she stood aside and motioned Lance inside, to tell her everything that had just transpired.

 

* * *

 

 

When Lance woke up, he felt anxious. Keith was just stirring beside him too, groggy and smiling at Lance, though Lance was certain the smile he returned did not reach his eyes. Allura had told him to investigate this more, train with him again, try to pry if he could. She was less than impressed at first to learn that Lance had slept with Keith at first, though once she had heard everything she had suggested feigning at least a friends with benefits sort of situation in order to learn more.

She reminded him to make sure Keith did not go into heat though, not that Lance thought he would. He was pretty sure it was on a yearly cycle or something anyways, though honestly he did not know a whole lot about the Galra beyond the whole 'more genders than usual in a species and three sex-chromosomes like Altean's' bit. Altean's were somewhat similar to the Galra, though they had two sexes that gave birth, rather than just one like the Galra did, and they were made apparent by their markings. Less sexual dysmorphism then the Galra had. He wondered sometimes how the humans worked.  
  
“Good morning~” Keith purred, moving just a little closer to Lance, and he had to swallow his doubts and fears about Keith again and move an arm around him. Lance doodled a little circle on Keith's back as he held the other close too, though soon they had to move.

“We should get cleaned up huh? And get some breakfast too,” Lance said. He did hope Keith was not a spy now. He was not in love with Keith, no, but he did like him a little bit now too, they had gotten to know each other a little better. Keith was not what Lance had expected, especially not when he had first seen Keith step out of the red lion, as though he had belonged there. Lance had thought Keith to be arrogant, walking out of King Alfor's lion like it was his own now, but the Red Lion had chosen Keith now too. Could she be wrong? Could the Galra have found some way to force her to choose a spy, confuse her in some way after all?

“Yeah, I guess so, huh?” Keith asked. Lance supposed Keith did not really need much though, he smelled amazing despite the training and hours of sex afterwards. Well, now was as good a time to find out as any, Lance supposed.

“I'm going to borrow your shower. I have a feeling Galra don't shower since you guys come from a desert planet right?” Lance asked. Daibazaal was destroyed before Altea, and Lance had never actually _been_ there, but he had learned about it, as they were once allied planets.

“We do?” Keith asked, looking curious, but Lance just shook his head and kissed Keith's forehead. Probably a good thing that Galra did not shed either. Less than Altean's and humans did anyways. Katie Holt always had hair on the back of her shirt it seemed, though Lance had not asked about it. Altean's only lost an average of five or six strands a day so it was not terribly noticeable.

Lance made his way to the shower to clean himself off and wash everything. He supposed he could keep this up a little while, but he was not sure how to go about doing what Allura wanted. Not in the beginning, and not now. Lance was supposed to be a mechanic, not a spy! Hell, he was not even a good paladin, yet here he was, stuck as the Blue Paladin when it should have been someone else.

Lance stood in the shower for a long time, letting the warm water run down his body, eyes closed as he allowed himself to be lost in his thoughts. He did not mean to worry Keith, but apparently he really was taking too long as Keith entered soon enough, dressed for the day.

“You okay in there?” Keith asked, his ears both flicking and Lance watched in mild amazement through the steam as every bit of Keith's fur moved up slightly, allowing the moisture to hit his skin better. Probably a survival adaptation to a dryer climate.

“Yeah. Sorry, I uh, the water felt nice,” Lance said, turning it off now, though Keith did watch the shower head curiously. Keith apparently did not shower, nor did any other Galra evidently, since Keith seemed to have no idea what it was. Lance stepped out and dried himself off before re-finding his clothing and dressing while Keith waited for him.  
  
“Should we um, leave separately or something? So that no one knows you spent the night with me o-or anything,” Keith's ears moved down, his tail moving side to side in apparent anxiety, though before Lance could answer him, a voice suddenly echoed through every room.

“Paladins, to your lions! This is not a drill! A Galra ship has appeared, we need everyone to combat stations, now!” Allura called, and Lance felt his heart leap into his throat in worry. He and Keith darted out of the room, though it seemed the others had not been in their rooms, something that was secretly relieving to Lance.

They were still the last ones on the bridge though, and the other three lions were already launching by the time Lance and Keith made it to the bridge. Neither of them stopped to ask Allura about what they were up against, opting to head right to their lions, and Lance felt Blue in his mind as her cockpit lit up and they launched out together at the same time as the Red Lion did.

“Alright team, let's form Voltron and take them out. They haven't fired on us yet, I don't think they know we're here, but let's not give them a chance to find out.” Shiro said over the intercom. The ship was different from the usual fleet cruiser, Lance noticed. It was smaller, for starters, so he assumed it held higher ups. It was rounder looking too, and it's engines were larger than a ship that size should need, indicating it was more for speed than fighting. Currently it was tucked on the opposite side of the moon the Castle of Lions was hiding beside. Odd that they had chosen the same spot, if this ship was indeed hiding.

“No, we can't attack them!” Keith sounded almost panicked when he said it. Lance felt something burn inside him though. Any chance to kill soldiers, especially the higher ups was a chance for revenge. If Keith would not help them form Voltron, they could destroy the ship without him!

“We're killing them before they kill us. I'm going in!” Lance said, pushing the throttle on Blue to rocket around. The ship began to move away from the moon, apparently spotting him, but it was not firing on them either. Their mistake.

“Lance, wait! You can't it's a-” Keith tried to stop him, but Lance was already charging his lasers as he whipped around the moon.

“Keith! Lance! Don't break formation! I said get back here, stick to the plan and form Voltron! Guys?” Shiro was the one who interrupted Keith though, Keith rocketing after Lance and just as his laser fired, Red crashed into Blue hard, his beam shooting harmlessly off to one side as the ship began to move faster, preparing to jump.

“Lance you can't!” Keith sounded panicked still, but all it did was fuel the anger burning hot inside of Lance now.

“Traitor!” Lance snapped, pushing the throttle to smash into the Red Lion now, charging another shot. Keith hit his lion again though, pushing him towards the moon. Fuck, how could Lance have been so stupid! Of course Keith was a traitor! He was a spy, he had a service mark, Keith was _never_ on their side and Lance should have known! He should have known the Galra were all the same now!

“Both of you, enough! Hunk, get Lance, Pidge, get Keith!” Shiro's orders came as Castle of lions moved too, hoping to hit the Galra ship instead.

“No!” Keith fought his way free of Lance's lion now, though Lance was okay with that. Until Keith was between the Castle of Lions and the fleet cruiser, holding position. He was _shielding_ the ship? There was no way Allura would risk destroying one of the lions to take out a single ship, especially not the Red Lion. Lance knew it too.

“Damn it, Keith!” Lance tried to launch himself after Keith and force him out of the way, but it was too late. The Galra ship completed it's jump to freedom, and something new burned harshly inside Lance's head and chest.

“I want you all on board. Now.” Allura said, though she sounded just as angry as Lance felt. Keith aimed for his own port, so Lance shook Hunk off his lion and did the same. God's, if Lance had known what Keith was going to do, he would never have slept with him! He would never have allowed that moment of weakness!

He was fuming when he came out of his launch bay and on to the bridge again, and Allura looked angry too, though she gave Lance a look and he knew she wanted him to hold off on attacking Keith. Keith looked angry too when he came out of his bay though, and that pissed Lance off even more.

“No, you don't get to be angry! I knew it, I knew you were still working for the Empire! You have a mark of the Secret Service, you have the insignia of loyalty on your damn chest! You're a spy!” Lance snapped. Keith's entire body changed from anger to shock. Eyes wide, stiff as a board, and his right hand going up to cover the spot on his chest that the mark sat, currently hidden beneath his armour. Maybe Lance was wrong, but he did not know what else Keith could be when he had the mark that only those who swore their loyalty to a general or lord would have, and it was the royal insignia on Keith's collarbone. Keith bore the mark of Zarkon.

 

 


	14. Accusations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's accusations force Keith to explain things he was not ready to, and force the team to reconsider many things they had thought about the Galra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've wanted to write so badly, and I've had the worst luck lately. Either my computer was broken, or I had no time or energy to write, but it finally happened, I finally wrote!!
> 
> Please consider leaving a comment, anything at all, I genuinely appreciate all of them even if it's just 'ahhhh' or 'ghdkjfzsdkjlf' because that's how I'm able to tell people really are reading this! Please consider checking out my tumblr url seliphra and consider buying me a kofi to help support this and other stories!

The cool of the armour under his fingers and the shock of what Lance said had snapped Keith from his initial anger over what had transpired. Lance's accusations stung, Keith had thought there was something more perhaps, but it seemed not. He did not know what Lance had seen the mark, but he also did not know why Lance called it a mark of Service.

“It-s not-” He tried to say, but Shiro spoke again before he could finish what he was trying to explain.

“Is it true? Show us your collarbone Keith, we all need to see it. Now. No, shut your mouth and do it, we gave you the benefit of the doubt earlier, and you better have a damn good explanation for all of this. You aren't a soldier but you've apparently got the mark of an elite one?” Shiro said, his tone angry and Keith scowled. His eyes glanced at the hands of the others, each one holding their bayards at the ready.

Keith moved very slowly, first removing his helmet, then his chest piece of armour, before undoing the tighter fitting body armour near the top, unzipping it just far enough to show the brand he had worn since he was a child.

“Happy?” He snapped, ears lowered down to protect them in case of a fight, fur beginning to bristle and stand on end. Keith could feel it in his whole body, the shame and the anger, and the judgment of the other paladins.

“So it's true, you are working for Zarkon. That _is_ his royal crest, it's given only to those loyalist to him,” Allura said, her eyes angrier than Keith had yet seen them. Then again, he did not see much of Allura, she always seemed to be avoiding him to some degree. Keith had suspected it was because of this. 

“I'm not-” Keith tried to talk, but this time the tiny human, Katie, interrupted him. 

“You didn't let us fight a battle cruiser! Don't give us the 'I'm on your side' if you won't even let us fight the enemy! You know more than you told us, tell us, tell me where my family is!” Shay, who now worked on the bridge with Allura and Coran had to grab Katie suddenly as she tried to lunge at Keith, and Katie gave a shout of frustration when she was stopped. Keith could feel his anger rising again, his tail moving in agitation at that. 

“No, I-” He would try again, but talking was proving to be increasingly difficult. 

“We need to lock him up to be safe. He's a spy, I won't have one crawling all over the ship,” Allura said, her eyes dark with anger, and Keith knew she barely contained it.  
  
“But I-” He was not a traitor! And he still could not get that out.

“Yes, that seems best, I think-”Coran began to speak, but for once someone else was interrupted.   
  
“GUYS!” Everyone's gaze went to Hunk, who had been silent up until now. His hand too was on his bayard, but he had looked less angry than everyone else until now too. “Let Keith explain himself! You keep demanding one, and no one has let him say anything, so let him talk!” 

“Let him talk? Are you insane?” Lance asked, his glare returning to Keith now, who scowled in return. Keith felt hurt welling up inside of himself too. Anger with himself, with Lance, with everyone. Well, all except Hunk, for Hunk he felt a surge of gratitude. 

“No, I'm not. But I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation. Maybe that explanation is that Keith is a spy, but he deserves to tell us his side of things too, right? Besides, why would the Red Lion choose him if she knew he was a spy? I don't know about you guys, but Yellow seems to be able to get into every part of my mind, so I guess it's true of Red too, right? So if he is a spy, she would know he is,” Hunk said simply.

“Hunk does raise a good point,” Shiro said, though he was frowning and his expression remained suspicious of Keith. Keith suspected he was about to be locked away again regardless of what he told them. 

“It wasn't a battle cruiser,” Keith said finally, though the looks he got from half the room, Balmeran's included were of disbelief. “It was a-”

“Yeah, we guessed that. It's a ship for the heads of the empire right? Smaller, faster, they can dart around the empire more easily,” Lance grumbled. 

“ _Lance._ We agreed to let Keith speak. Let him speak.” Shiro reminded. Lance huffed and murmured under his breath, not loud enough for the humans to hear, but enough that Keith and the Altean's could. 

“ _I_ didn't agree to anything.”

“It was a nursery ship,” Keith said, glaring right at Lance now. “It was full of babies and qylar. That's what those are, that's what my only job is in the entire empire. I'm not a soldier, I'm what produces them so the empire can keep moving, and growing, and it's the only thing I can do in the empire or for it. That's what I am. That's what _all_ qylar are, and I'm not Zarkon's spy, I'm his _concubine._ ” Keith snapped, relieved to finally be able to say it all, though it was embarrassing to tell the others. He knew the Paladin's okay, but this would no doubt spread through the whole ship too. 

“You were- you were what?” Katie asked, more softly, eyes wide, and it seemed she was more willing to listen now than before, and Shay relaxed her hold on Katie a little now. 

“Qylar can't be soldiers. That's why I told you I wasn't. Because it's the truth, I'm not. We're born, raised, and die on the same ship, never leaving it for all our lives, if we're average. The prettiest qylar are taken at eight years though, and we're lined up to let the officers pick and choose which of us they want for their personal harems. If we are not chosen, we get sent back to our ship, to rejoin the general population. If we are chosen, we're branded with their mark, so no one else will dare touch us and we can remain unspoiled for them to enjoy,” Keith said. 

“So, you have Zarkon's mark because he thought you were going to be super hot later on, is what you're trying to tell us,” Lance said, and Keith suspected he meant to have more venom in the words, but simply could not muster it. 

“Basically, yes. The Druids said it would be a high honour for us to be chosen. I disagree with them, and did then too. That was a nursery ship. That's where we live our lives, slaves to the empire. They keep the ships away from the main fleet except during the heat cycle, because the chance soldiers will break in is too high, but they're unarmed and only able to jump away from danger. No one is stupid enough to attack galra ships this deep in the empire after all. They only jump if they are in danger, to a safety zone the druids on board take them to. Only Druids can be trusted on the ships. The soldiers are... very violent with us when they win the right to mate.” Keith explained. 

“If this is true, it means a lot has changed,” Shiro said, looking at Allura meaningfully now. Keith did not understand the looks, but he suspected the humans, at least, believed him. 

“If true,” Allura agreed, her tone still firm, and angry. 

“Would you still destroy the ship then? Is killing slaves and babies what Voltron is? Yes, some of those babies will grow up to be soldiers, after being stolen from their mothers, but we would not wish that for our children either. You don't see how we mourn every time they gas us and take the children, you don't see how we try to hide them when we know the time is coming, how the whole ship grieves, even those who kept a qylar-born child. Well, if Voltron is killing children then I want no part!” Keith snapped, which seemed to throw the Altean's off their guard a little. Lance especially looked uncertain about all of this. 

“I think this is worth investigating further. For-for your safety though it is best if you remain in your room until further notice,” Allura said finally. Keith knew that would happen but he would not argue it, and went silently with Shiro to his room. 

Once the door was closed behind him, he stripped out of his armour properly, before curling up naked on the bed. It still smelled strongly of Lance in here, and now that hurt. Lance had been so angry, Keith could see the hatred in his eyes, feel it radiating off of him. 

Keith was not in love with Lance, but he had liked him, enough to sleep with him. A lot. He shifted a little, pulling into a tighter ball, and his tail moved up around himself. Even now though, he craved more of Lance's touch, and that made his heart ache a little bit. Not love, but something was happening, and he was hungry again. 

 

* * *

 

 

For two full days Keith waited alone again, in his room, waiting for anything to happen. He was fed still, and he ate all of his meals, and maybe a little extra since Hunk was the one grabbing him food. Hunk usually stayed and talked by the door too, updating him on what was happening, which Keith was grateful for. 

Katie had apparently been able to get into a fleet system, on a base they went to in secret. Keith had not known the mission was happening until after it was over, but he did not really mind that so much as he minded being trapped in here, smelling Lance in his sheets and now and then by the door. Keith suspected he wanted to come in but did not know what to say. 

Katie had been able to confirm a lot of what Keith had said, including a detailed list on the location of the nursery ship safety zones, which were all heavily guarded. Nothing on current location outside of that, as the ships would jump from place to place, needing to hide both from enemies of the empire and the empires own soldiers. They only went near battle cruisers if the cruiser was scheduled to board, or if an emergency was happening. 

Katie had also confirmed Keith's identity records, which ship he was born on, it's safety zone, and that he was meant to be on a private ship now that hovered near the main command, while never quite going there. Inside it's safety net, outside where it would be targeted in a fire-fight. Not that one was likely. Only Voltron was stupid enough to try and fight the empire after all, though already there were whispers of rebellion. 

“Keith?” Hunks voice by the door today caused Keith's ear to perk up and point at the door. He stood up slowly and moved by it so they could speak easier. 

“Yeah, I'm here. Can't really go anywhere though. What's up Hunk?” He asked, leaning on the wall beside the door. 

“You're gonna be let out, can I open the door?” He asked. Keith felt his heart soar at the thought of freedom. Being at least permitted into the training deck or to Red would be nice. Red was always there too, in the back of his mind, reassuring him and calming him. 

“Yeah! Uh, yeah, you can!” Keith said, moving away from the wall, relieved when the door really did swish open. Hunk and Lance were both there, though Lance seemed to be avoiding eye contact. His cheeks were dusted lightly with red -a fascinating phenomenon, Keith thought- and he was pointedly looking at the floor or the wall both while Keith stepped out and while they walked to the bridge. 

When they arrived all the Paladins, Allura, and Coran were there. Three Balmeran's too, their leader, Shay, and one other, Keith vaguely recognized as being in charge of the night watch now. Ralts or Raxle or something, Keith was not entirely sure, as he had only met him once before. Allura's expression threw him the most though. It was the first time he had seen her look like she was not angry with him. Instead she looked embarrassed, like Lance did, and Lance sat down in his seat on the bridge, still not looking up at Keith. 

“Keith. We were able to confirm much of what you said and er. I believe we owe you an apology. We treated you unfairly,” She said slowly, though Keith shifted uncomfortably too. 

“I understand your reasoning behind it. The Galra destroyed your home world, right? I did not know about that until more recently but um. The Galra are still your enemies. And you've been asleep ten thousand years, so I guess maybe a lot has changed in the empire too since you'd seen it last,” Keith said. He had been given enough time to calm down too after all. 

“Yes. We were suspicious of you because of this. And we probably still will be of other Galra, even other qylar until they can prove they are trustworthy. It is my belief, however, that the Red Lion has chosen someone we can trust. I do not believe she would choose poorly, or choose someone we could not trust, and so far you have not done anything to cause us suspicion that could not be properly explained afterwards. Voltron is, well, it's _not_ about revenge or killing children. It's about freedom. Including the freedom of the Galra that are being hurt by the empire too. So we would appreciate it if you could update us more on the empire and what has been happening in the past ten thousand years. As you were not privy to much of this information, I would imagine what you can provide us with is limited, but the updates would be appreciated. And in return, Lance, Coran, and I could teach you about what has been lost to your people,” She said. 

Allura spoke carefully, her words and tone measured. Keith could tell she likely did not fully trust him even now, though he supposed that might just be how it was. He glanced over at Lance who had been staring at him, his expression unreadable, though Lance's eyes flicked down again suddenly when Keith's eyes met his. 

“I would like that Princess Allura. Thank you,” He said. He still felt the ache in his chest where Lance was concerned. He did not know really why or what the feeling was. Hurt, definitely, but something else. He liked Lance, and he did not like having been accused by Lance, or outed by him either. 

“Then let us get started,” She said with a small smile, the first one she had given Keith since he first arrived on board. 

 


End file.
